Events

Joint meeting with Michigan Botanical Club
(Note: different meeting time and place than usual)

Title
Biodiversity: The Spice of Life ? or Life Support?

Abstract
The world is currently in the midst of one of the greatest waves of species extinction that has ever occurred in the history of life. But even as rates of species extinction are approaching those of prior mass extinctions, we know little about the different roles that species play in natural environments. We know even less about how the well-being of our own species might be linked to the great variety of life that is the most striking feature of our planet.

In this lecture, I will evaluate the evidence for a classic ecological hypothesis that Earth?s life-support systems depend critically on the variety of species that inhabit our planet. The idea that biological diversity regulates the production of food, the cleanliness of air and water, and outbreaks of pests and disease has been around since the time of Darwin. But while these ?services? of natural ecosystems are often touted by environmentalists to justify conservation, they have been highly controversial among scientists. Until the 1990?s there was little evidence that could establish any clear link between biological diversity and the rates of biologically essential processes. I will review the explosion of new research that has accumulated on this topic over the last two decades, and I?ll begin to ask the difficult, but crucial question of how many species our planet needs to support higher life.

Bio-sketch
Bradley Cardinale is an ecologist who uses theory, experiments, and syntheses of existing data to understand and predict the consequences of biodiversity loss for humanity, and to reverse those impacts through conservation and restoration of ecosystems. He is perhaps best known for his meta-analyses that have helped build a scientific consensus on how biodiversity loss will affect the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper.

Cardinale is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 2002, and completed a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cardinale has published more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and won several research awards. In 2013, he became and elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and in 2014 he was named by Thompson Reuters as one of the most highly cited ecologists in the world. He currently serves on the editorial board of Ecology and Ecological Monographs, and is an elected member of the science committee of the United Nation?s Environmental Program Future Earth.