Global change is affecting ecosystems worldwide. To understand and mitigate the consequences of global change, we may need to understand how biotic interactions influence ecological communities. There is emerging evidence that plant-microbe interactions can play a strong role in structuring plant communities. In this talk, Dr. Crawford will discuss her work investing how climate-mediated changes in plant-microbe interactions will influence plant communities in Texas grasslands.

Dr. Crawford earned her B.A. degree in Biology at University of Tennessee and her Ph.D. in Ecology at Rice University. She is an Associate Professor of the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at University of Houston. Her research focuses on how diverse ecological communities form and what function diversity plays in ecological processes. She does this by addressing how interactions among plants and between plants and other above- and below-ground organisms shape communities and mediate ecosystem functions.

Dr. Miller earned his B.A. degree in Biology at Colgate University and his Ph.D. in Ecology at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is an Associate Professor of the Biosciences Department at Rice University. His research addresses fundamental questions regarding population dynamics and the population-level consequences of inter-specific interactions, mostly in plant and insect systems. His work spans population, community, and evolutionary ecology, including the spread of biological invasions, the dynamics of consumer-resource and host-symbiont interactions, and the evolution of life histories.

All natural populations experience fluctuations in their environment through space and time. This has never been more true: increased climatic fluctuations and spatial heterogeneity are hallmarks of ongoing anthropogenic global change. This talk will explore how plant populations respond to spatial and temporal environmental variability. In the spatial dimension, environmental variation causes some locations to be more suitable for population viability than others. Over large spatial scales, the boundary between suitable and unsuitable habitat defines species range limits. I will present experimental work examining the drivers of range limitation in a grass species endemic to the southern Great Plains. In the temporal dimension, environmental variation can impose a penalty on fitness in stochastic environments through nonlinear averaging (bad times are more harmful than good times are helpful). I will present work exploring how interactions with microbial symbionts may buffer host populations against negative effects of fluctuations in the environment. Integrating over time and space, I will discuss challenges and opportunities for forecasting population responses to environmental change.

The seminar provided students with an idea of what a career working in one institutional core facility – the ATGC – was like: the genomic technologies that were being used, how data generated in the ATGC was critical for the various research programs MD Anderson investigators were conducting to understand, cure, and prevent cancer, and what ATGC members thought about their role in MD Anderson&ss mission to “Make Cancer History.”