School of Biology and Ecology Seminar Series - School of Biology and Ecology

Matthew Chatfield teaches his Bio Evolution class in Williams Hall.

SBE Seminar Speakers

Every semester (fall and spring), we invite speakers from universities, federal and non-federal agencies, and researchers to speak at the Mitchell Center.

SBE Spring 2025 Seminar Speakers

All seminars will be held in the Mitchell Center at 3PM on Fridays, unless otherwise stated.

January 24

Dr. Jasmine Saros, UMaine

Title: Lakes in the cryosphere: ecological consequences of melting glaciers and thawing permafrost

Hosted by Seanna Annis

Accelerated glacial recession and permafrost thaw in the Arctic have substantially altered the distribution and characteristics of associated lake ecosystems. The changing cryosphere not only affects the hydrologic cycle, it also alters physical (e.g., turbidity from glacial flour, temperature) and biogeochemical aspects (e.g., nutrients, metals) of associated lakes, with implications for lake habitat. Cryosphere lakes are also important components of freshwater security, as they serve as terrestrial storage sites to retain melted freshwater (versus loss to the ocean), reduce suspended sediment transport from glaciers, with positive implications for hydropower, and are sources of drinking water.
This talk will focus on my work on this subject as part of two projects: 1) a Fulbright award in Norway during my sabbatical in Fall 2023, and 2) a long-term observatory that I maintain in West Greenland.

Jasmine Saros is a Professor in the School of Biology & Ecology and Associate Director of the Climate Change Institute. She is a lake ecologist and paleolimnologist, addressing research questions that focus on climate-driven lake ecosystem changes in Arctic, alpine and boreal regions. She serves as the Program Director of UMaine’s NSF Systems Approaches to Understanding and Navigating the New Arctic (SAUNNA) NRT, a program to train the next generation in Arctic systems science. She served as the US Fulbright Distinguished Arctic Chair to Norway in 2023.

February 7

Graduate Lightning Talks, UMaine

Graduate Participants: Amrit Poudel, Holly White, Grayson Huston, Eric Brown, and Michael Galli.

Hosted by SBE GO

February 14

Dr. Brittany Slabach, College of the Atlantic

Title: Wildlife Ecology in Multi-Use Landscapes: Case Studies from Acadia National Park.

Hosted by Danielle Levesque

Fostering societal appreciation for the conservation of natural landscapes relies on individuals connecting with these landscapes. This connection is fostered in part, through visitation and recreational use of National Parks and other protected places. Unfortunately, recreational use can negatively impact landscapes through habitat alteration and can alter wildlife behavior causing avoidance or displacement from disturbed areas. Management activities – habitat restoration, invasive species removal, or trail closures – are used to offset negative impacts of recreational use and can positively or negatively impact organismal use. To balance the conservation and protection of protected landscapes that must also provide recreational opportunities, an understanding of how
intentional (restoration) and unintentional disturbance (recreational use) affect organismal ecology is necessary. In this talk, I will discuss several on-going projects investigating the effects of landscape ecology and disturbance on small and large mammal communities in Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME.

Dr. Brittany Slabach (or Dr. B to her students) is a vertebrate ecologist and
the Kim M. Wentworth Chair in Environmental Studies at College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME. She received her BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, her MS in Biology from Tufts University and her PhD in Biology from the University of Kentucky. She served as a visiting Assistant Professor and Lecturer at Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, for four years prior to joining COA. Her research centers on the relationship between landscapes, disturbance, and vertebrate ecology. She has experience with a variety of taxa (mammals – big and small,
reptiles, and aves) and focuses on landscapes that serve multiple recreational purposes. She has worked with a variety of different project partners including non-profits, state and federal agencies, and private stakeholders. She currently has active projects with the National Park Service (Acadia National Park), Schoodic Institute, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and several private ranch owners. She has also served as a land manager in the non-profit sector. Dr. B views students as her collaborators and they work together to refine questions, design methodology, execute studies, and publish findings. Her goal is to provide students with hands-on experience and technical skills to address, and more importantly, challenge current ecological, conservation, and management
standards. Dr. B firmly believes in equity in knowledge and practice and has a general open-door field policy where anyone interested in field ecology or conservation is welcome to join in our work. Her and her students strive to make both field ecology and outdoor spaces more inclusive
and accessible to all.

February 21

Dr. Stephanie Miller, UMaine

Title: Understanding Conservation through the Lens of Quantitative Ecology

Hosted by Brian McGill

Growing threats to ecological systems from climate and land-use changes have led to increased public interest in environmental conservation efforts. However, the process by which conservation actions are formulated and informed by scientific research may be less apparent to people not engaged in active conservation efforts. In this seminar, Dr. Miller will describe her understanding of conservation as a scientific discipline, present a systematic planning framework, and use this framework to connect her previous, ongoing, and prospective research endeavors to conservation planning. The presentation of her research will cover results from a past project aimed at evaluating the Conserving Nature’s Stage concept, as well as two projects she is now working on linked to short-term forecasting of breeding bird populations and blueberry crop production under changing climate scenarios. She will conclude the presentation by outlining her future research interests in sustainable landscape planning, using it as a setting to highlight how bringing conservation planning strategies to a broader audience could promote more mutualistic outcomes in human-environmental systems.

Dr. Stephanie Miller is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Biology and Ecology and the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at The University of Maine, working with Dr. Brian McGill. She is a quantitative ecologist interested in understanding biodiversity distributions and ecological processes across spatial scales and developing products from ecological research that can inform planning solutions for conservation and climate change adaptation. Dr. Miller has received degrees in Zoology, Population and Conservation Biology, and Forest Science. She considers herself a lifelong learner motivated to find ways to improve humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

March 7

Geoffrey Zahn, Utah Valley University

This seminar has been cancelled.

Rescheduling to fall roster.

Re-scheduled for fall.

Rescheduled for fall.

March 10

Jessie Williamson, Cornell University

Title: Avian migration, physiology, and speciation at elevational extremes

Co-hosted by SBE & WFCB

Dr. Williamson will discuss her research on birds that make extreme seasonal shifts in elevation during migration, and will talk about how these movements affect ecology, evolution, and physiology. She will focus on her recent work with giant hummingbirds (Patagona spp.) in Peru and Chile, in which she’s combined migration tracking, genomics, and field physiological approaches to uncover a spectacular long-distance migratory journey with an extreme elevational ascent––and cryptic speciation between the world’s largest hummingbirds.

Jessie is an integrative ornithologist who combines approaches across disciplines and timescales to study how elevation affects the migration, physiology, and genomic divergence of birds. Her research takes place in the U.S. and the South American Andes.

Currently, Jessie is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Rose Fellow, sponsored by Dr. Irby Lovette and Dr. Maren Vitousek at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates. She completed her Ph.D. with Dr. Chris Witt at the University of New Mexico and Museum of Southwestern Biology, where she is a Research Associate.

In August 2025, Jessie will join the University of Wyoming as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology & Physiology.

Jessie Williamson peers through binoculars

March 14

Melissa Aikens, University of New Hampshire

Title: Building Quantitative Skills in Biology Students

Hosted by Angela Mech

Quantitative skills are an essential core competency for undergraduate life science students. As part of their undergraduate curriculum, students should be learning how to interpret and construct graphs, apply statistical analyses to data, and understand how to use and interpret mathematical models of biological phenomena. However, learning these skills can be challenging for students. It first requires that students engage with quantitative problems, which may be difficult if they
have negative self-beliefs and values for math. Once engaged, students must then apply appropriate cognitive resources to these problems. My research seeks to understand how we can
support biology students’ learning of quantitative skills from both a motivational and cognitive perspective. In this talk, I will discuss how different classroom practices contribute to student
motivation to engage in quantitative tasks. I will also discuss recent research we have started in my lab that aims to understand how students reason when interpreting graphs of covarying quantities. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to inform approaches we can take to teaching quantitative skills in our biology courses in order to equip life science majors with the skills they need to be successful in their careers.

Dr. Aikens is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Education at the University of New Hampshire. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Virginia where she studied
ecology and evolutionary biology. She then completed a postdoc in biology education at the University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Aikens’ research primarily focuses on understanding pedagogical strategies that foster positive attitudes and support student learning of quantitative topics in biology. She teaches courses in introductory biology, evolution,
and plant ecology and was the recipient of her department’s inaugural Patty Bedker Teaching Award in 2023. Dr. Aikens is also heavily involved in university activities that support undergraduates. She serves as the Director of the Pathways to Professions in the Biosciences program, an NSF-funded scholarship program that supports community college transfer students
in the life sciences, and is a co-developer and co-facilitator of the UNH Mentorship Academy, which provides training to faculty, staff, and students on mentoring undergraduate researchers in STEM.

april 4

Jordan Dowell, Louisiana State University

Title: Tossing out the Binary: towards understanding the role of multifunctional traits in growth-defense tradeoffs.

April 11

Jess Gersony, Smith College

Title: Tangled up in blue: Understanding carbon movement in trees during water stress

Hosted by John Zhang

Plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and convert it into sugars through photosynthesis. Once carbon dioxide is in the form of sugar, it is then transported all throughout the plant through the “sugar highway” known as the phloem to aid in respiration and growth. Let’s take a moment to imagine if this transportation pathway was slowed, or even blocked: in this scenario there would be a buildup of sugars in the leaves and large deficits in other parts of the plant, which would result in severely limited growth, severely limited photosynthesis and, in the extreme scenario, plant death. Despite this crucial role of the phloem, we currently lack an understanding of how shifts in environmental conditions (e.g. climate change) could alter sugar transportation through the phloem, which is exacerbated by a general dearth of foundational knowledge about phloem functioning. In this talk, Gersony will discuss her research seeking to fill in our knowledge gaps about the sugar highway in the context of water stress, one of the key environmental stressors of climate change. In addition to this scientific content, she will also talk about art-science integration in the context of climate change research.

Jess Gersony is a plant physiologist, artist, and educator. She currently runs the PLACE (PLant physiology, Art, and Community Engagement) Lab as an Assistant Professor at Smith College. She is passionate about exploring human-planet interactions through both scientific and artistic inquiry, and strives to do this work through an intersectional, social justice lens. The ultimate goals of her work are to increase and deepen our awareness of (and relationship to) the natural world, to further diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM spaces, and to improve our understanding of how plants are responding to climate change. Scientifically, she investigates the physiological processes underpinning how plants interact with the changing climate around them. In parallel, she explores topics related to water and carbon movement, environmental change, time and relationships (between people, other organisms, and places) in her poetic practice. Additionally, she is passionate about re-imagining what STEM classes and research environments can look like and learning about/implementing equity-based pedagogical practices. Lastly, she seeks to support K-12 students in the public school system, collaborate with community college plant biologists and engage with various stakeholders who work with northeastern forests.

April 18

Kiley Daley, UMaine

Title: Ecological Calendars as a Tool to Understand Climate Variability, Freshwater Resources Changes, and Agricultural Impacts in South Greenland

Hosted by Jasmine Saros

South Greenland represents the first known example of agriculture in the Arctic, with Norse and Inuit subsistence practices blending to create a distinctive cultural landscape that is highly vulnerable to environmental change. In recent years, a changing precipitation pattern has created significant challenges for sheep farmers in the region. In a given season, farms must be prepared to deal with too little water (dry summers or drought) but also too much water (extreme precipitation events), both of which negatively impact agricultural operations. In 2023, a multi-year project was initiated to better understand climate variability, freshwater resource changes, and farming impacts within this Sub-Arctic agroecosystem. Using a participatory approach, farm site assessments were conducted involving ‘walk-along’ semi-structured interviews, inventories of water infrastructure, and mapping of freshwater sources. This presentation will highlight findings from the first two years of the project including the development of an ecological calendar to bring together scientific and place-based knowledge of both biophysical and sociocultural conditions. The associated engagement activities between the UMaine research team, Greenland collaborators, and the local farming community will also be discussed.

Kiley Daley is a Postdoctoral Research Associate of Arctic Freshwater Resources at the Climate Change Institute. He is also a senior faculty member in the NSF ‘Systems Approaches to Understanding and Navigating the New Arctic’ NRT and part-time instructor for the Ecology & Environmental Sciences Program. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Studies and Health from Dalhousie University (2020). His interdisciplinary research focuses on socio-ecological systems with emphasis on water-related issues in rural, Indigenous, and Arctic communities.

May 2

Trisha Spanbauer, University of Toledo

Title: Using microfossils and ancient environmental DNA to understand evolutionary and ecological dynamics

Hosted by Jacquelyn Gill and MCGE

Interdisciplinary research conducted in the Spanbauer lab is focused on understanding how disturbance and environmental change impacts the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. Our research addresses a wide range of temporal scales from seasons to multiple millennia to characterize phenomena that occur on ecological to evolutionary timescales. In addition, we are interested in how the functions of freshwater organisms and the structures of aquatic food webs impact the environment and ecosystem services. We carry out this research in a variety of environments, but we specialize in large lake ecosystems. This seminar will highlight four major areas of research in the Spanbauer lab: global change science and macroecology, algal ecology and evolution, Great Lakes research, and the use of an emerging paleoenvironmental proxy, ancient environmental DNA.

Dr. Trisha Spanbauer joined the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Toledo in 2019, and she is currently a resident faculty member at the Lake Erie Center. Prior to becoming a professor, Dr. Spanbauer received a BFA in Visual Art and Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Ph.D. in Geology and Biology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After her Ph.D., she was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship through the National Academies Research Associateship Program, which was conducted at the Cincinnati Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She followed that with an NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship carried out at the University of Texas at Austin. At the University of Toledo, she has grown a research group that is focused on aquatic ecology, molecular ecology, and paleolimnology.