Seed Predation in a Changing World

On Thursday, November 21 @ 11am ET, join Cary Institute for a virtual scientific seminar by Dr. Peter Guiden, Hamilton College.

Rodents play a central role in many food webs, providing prey for higher trophic levels while consuming plants and invertebrates. While rodents are the most biodiverse group of mammals on Earth, many rodent communities have been simplified due to habitat loss, climate change, and invasive species. Understanding how these simplified rodent communities influence trophic structure remains an important challenge. Overcoming this challenge will require innovative field methods that better link individual data to community-wide phenomena.

Dr. Guiden will explore how climate change, particularly the loss of winter snowpack, and the proliferation of invasive shrubs influence relationships between rodents and the plants they consume, with a focus on northern temperate forests. Recent work using motion-activated cameras and stationary RFID antennas to better interpret seed predation data will be highlighted. Finally, Dr. Guiden will conclude by discussing how management decisions in restored ecosystems can influence rodent biodiversity, and what this means for trophic interactions mediated by rodents.

Free and open to all. Registration required via Eventbrite.

Host or Publisher Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies