<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>Hi everyone,<br><br></div><div>Nick Schooler is presenting his PhD seminar tomorrow. Details below.<br><br></div><div>Cheers,<br><br></div><div>Jenny<br></div><br>
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<div class="m_-6412370619678006601moz-forward-container"><b>Nicholas K. Schooler</b>
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<div>Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science<br>
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<b><i>Biodiversity of coastal ecosystems: exploring spatial and
temporal patterns in intertidal macroinvertebrate
communities of sandy beaches</i></b>
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<div><b>Tuesday, December 4th at 10am</b></div>
<div>MSI Auditorium</div>
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<div><b>Committee members: </b>Steve Gaines, Jenny Dugan,
Hunter Lenihan, Bob Miller, Mark Page</div>
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<div><b>Abstract</b>: </div>
<div> Biodiversity plays a vital role in the function,
stability, and resilience of ecosystems. Concern about
biodiversity loss and the alteration of ecological communities
has driven major efforts to catalog and monitor species in
ecosystems across the globe and to quantify relationships
between biodiversity and ecosystem function. Evaluating
responses of biodiversity and community structure to abiotic
and biotic drivers, such as climate, disturbance, and species
interactions requires comparisons across relevant spatial and
temporal scales. </div>
<div> Located at the boundary between land and sea, sandy
beach ecosystems and the biodiversity they support are subject
to increasing threats from escalating anthropogenic and
climatic impacts. To gain insights on mechanisms influencing
ecological communities and functioning, I explored questions
concerning responses of biodiversity, community structure, and
composition of sandy beach ecosystems to environmental and
anthropogenic factors operating over a range of temporal and
spatial scales for my dissertation research. To evaluate these
questions, we conducted 60 intertidal macroinvertebrate
surveys at 41 study beaches spanning >1800 km of California
coastline (~9 degrees of latitude) from 2009-2015. These were
the first quantitative surveys ever conducted at many of these
beaches.<span> </span></div>
<div> Overall, findings from my dissertation suggest sandy
beaches are more diverse and biogeographically complex than
generally acknowledged. My results highlight the importance of
connectivity to donor ecosystems and the strong influence of
subsidies on intertidal macroinvertebrate communities of sandy
beaches, particularly that of drift macroalgae on
wrack-associated species.<span><br>
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<div>Nick Schooler<br>
Marine Science Institute<br>
University of California<br>
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6150<br>
emails: <a href="mailto:nschooler@gmail.com" target="_blank">nschooler@gmail.com</a> & <a href="mailto:nick.schooler@lifesci.ucsb.edu" style="font-size:12.8px" target="_blank">n</a><span style="font-size:12.8px"><a href="mailto:schooler@ucsb.edu" target="_blank">schooler@ucsb.edu</a></span><br>
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</div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><span><span><span><span><div align=""><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>Jenny Dugan</b><br>
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<font face="Tahoma" size="2">Marine Science
Institute<br>
University of California<br>
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6150<br>
Phone: 805-893-2675</font><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><font><font><br>
email: <a href="mailto:j_dugan@lifesci.ucsb.edu" target="_blank">j_dugan@lifesci.ucsb.edu</a><br>
</font></font></font><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><a>http://msi.ucsb.edu/people/research-scientists/jenny-dugan </a></font><font face="Tahoma" size=""><font><font size="2"> </font><br>
</font></font><font face="Tahoma" color="#2f4f4f" size="2"><a><font>SBC LTER:</font> </a></font><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><a>
http://sbc.lternet.edu/index.html</a></font><font face="Tahoma" size="2"> </font></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>