Feb. 19, 2010
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| Rosemary Gillespie will speak Feb. 24 at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar. |
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DAVIS--Insect biologist Rosemary Gillespie, director of the Essig Museum of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, and chair of the Berkeley Natural History Museums, will speak on "Community Assembly through Adaptive Radiation: Spiders on Islands” at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, Feb. 24 in 122 Briggs Hall.
The seminar, set from 12:10 to 1 p.m. and open to all interested persons, will be Webcast live and then archived on the UC Davis Department of Entomology Web site.
“Remote islands are heralded as 'natural laboratories,' with communities largely comprising species that have evolved within the islands as a result of adaptive radiation,” Gillespie said. “I have been studying spiders to elucidate commonalities underlying patterns of adaptive radiation and how communities are filled in such situations.”
“Overall, this research promises insights into the interplay between selection and the biotic environment in the evolution of species within a community,” she said.
Chris Searcy, graduate student in the Population Biology Graduate Group, Center for Population Biology, will introduce Gillespie. Ian Pearse, graduate student studying with professor Rick Karban, is coordinating the winter seminars, which began Jan. 6 and end March 10.
All seminars are from 12:10 to 1 p.m. On tap March 3 is Moran Segoli, postdoctoral researcher in the Jay Rosenheim lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology. He will speak on The Importance of Predation in Shaping Desert Communities and Trophic Levels."
On March 10, research chemist John Beck of the USDA Agricultural Research Station, Albany, will speak on "The Search for Non-Pheromonal Volatile Organic Compounds Toward Control of Navel Orangeworm, a Major Insect Pest of California Tree Nuts.”
Here's the link to listen live.
Under a pilot Webcasting program launched by UC Davis entomology professor James Carey, entomology seminars are being Webcast by his graduate students, James Harwood and Amy Morice.
The archived Webcasts are at this link.
Abstract:
Remote islands are heralded as "natural laboratories" with communities largely comprising species that have evolved within the islands as a result of adaptive radiation. I have been studying spiders to elucidate commonalities underlying patterns of adaptive radiation and how communities are filled in such situations. Here, I examine patterns of morphological and ecological differentiation across the Pacific and how diversity can arise from a small sample of colonists. Specific topics will include: (1) Parallels between adaptive radiations in similar lineages across different archipelagoes in the Pacific. Do the same sets of taxa tend to diversify on different archipelagoes, and if so, do they follow the same evolutionary trajectories? (2) Patterns of diversification within an adaptive radiation. What are the relative roles of colonization or dispersal versus parallel or convergent evolution and associated niche shifts, in shaping ecologically similar sets of species on different islands of the Hawaiian chain? (3) Genetic modification during colonization of new land masses. Can we determine the genetic changes that occur to allow morphological diversity to be recovered following founder events? Overall, this research promises insights into the interplay between selection and the biotic environment in the evolution of species within a community. |
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
