CBD seminar: Causes and consequences of trait variation in plants and animals Professor Yvonne Buckley

Plant and animal traits have many and varied influences on the ecology and evolution of organisms. Traits such as body size, metabolic rate and leaf economics have been shown to influence population dynamics, life history and species interactions. However, individual traits operate in a complex system of other traits, environmental and biotic context, so simple relationships between widely available traits and system behaviour can be difficult to tease out.

In this seminar, Professor Yvonne Buckley will use several examples of modelling approaches for determining the consequences of plant and animal trait variation on the conservation activity of zoos, spread of invasive pines, and animal and plant life history strategies. Professor Buckley will also introduce an ecological model system of distributed population ecology, Plantpopnet, with which her team is investigating the ecological and evolutionary causes of trait variation and its consequences for population dynamics across global environmental gradients.

Please email Carolin Kosiol (ck202@st-andrews.ac.uk) for the link to join the Teams event.