Ecological studies are the bridge that link biodiversity and global change issues. Please join us at the Harvard University Center for the Environment and Bank of America series on Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change "Biological Networks and the Scaling of Plant Form, Function, Diversity, and Ecology" Brian J. Enquist, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona and The Santa Fe Institute TODAY 5:00 pm Biolabs Lecture Hall Harvard University 16 Divinity Ave Cambridge, MA Ecology needs a predictive theoretical framework to understand and integrate how plants and ecosystems respond in changing world. However, is it possible to predict attributes of plant function, diversity, or even ecosystem performance from more general first principles? I will discuss new insights from Metabolic Scaling Theory (MST). MST is based on how the geometry of vascular networks underlies individual-level scaling relations for how plants use resources, fill space, and grow. The theory invokes a few key principles: space-filling, biomechanics, and minimization of resource transport costs within hierarchical vascular networks. MST postulates that these principles have primarily shaped the evolution of plant form, function, diversity, and ecology. Recent applications include linking how key functional traits interact to regulate variation in relative growth rates, leaf functioning, and how functional traits covary with each other. These then scale up to determine emergent properties in ecology and the functional trade-off axes that help define plant diversity. Lastly, this talk will also show how functional diversity in plants can then be ‘scaled up’ to predict emergent scaling behavior across diverse forests, including size-frequency distributions, spacing relations, canopy configurations, mortality rates, population dynamics, successional dynamics, and resource flux rates. The theory uniquely makes quantitative predictions for both leaf-level and forest-level scaling exponents and normalizations. A major strength of the theory is that it endeavors to explain a lot with a little. MST is based on a small number of principles and parameters but it makes many quantitative predictions and unifies diverse features of (i) the structure and function of plants; and (ii) plant ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem dynamics. The Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change lecture series is sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment with generous support from Bank of America. The lecture will be followed by a reception. Contact: Lisa Matthews Events Coordinator Harvard University Center for the Environment 24 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138 lisa_matthews(a)harvard.edu p. 617-495-8883 f. 617-496-0425 *|LIST_BIODIVERSITY|* [2]Unsubscribe aspuru-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu from this list. Links: 2. http://harvard.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&… Our mailing address is: 24 Oxford St. Cambridge, MA 02138 T: (617) 495-0368 www.environment.harvard.edu Copyright (C) 2008 Harvard University. All rights reserved. [3]Forward this email to a friend Links: 3. http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=7532d1fbf18f39219ac742ebe&id…