Biology Seminar
Wang Seminar
Dr. Zinan Wang | Wang Lab
Bio:
Zinan Wang obtained his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Beijing Forestry University in 2013. He came to the United States for graduate studies in entomology in 2015. Zinan first earned his master’s degree in entomology in Dr. Rodrigo Diaz’s lab at Louisiana State University in 2017. He then pursued his Ph.D. studies in a dual major program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior \under the supervision of Dr. Henry Chung at Michigan State University, completing it in 2021. Zinan continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow in Chung’s lab at Michigan State University before joining University of Kentucky.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series:
Wang Seminar
Dr. Zinan Wang | Wang Lab
Bio:
Zinan Wang obtained his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Beijing Forestry University in 2013. He came to the United States for graduate studies in entomology in 2015. Zinan first earned his master’s degree in entomology in Dr. Rodrigo Diaz’s lab at Louisiana State University in 2017. He then pursued his Ph.D. studies in a dual major program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior \under the supervision of Dr. Henry Chung at Michigan State University, completing it in 2021. Zinan continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow in Chung’s lab at Michigan State University before joining University of Kentucky.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series:
Wang Seminar
Dr. Zinan Wang | Wang Lab
Bio:
Zinan Wang obtained his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Beijing Forestry University in 2013. He came to the United States for graduate studies in entomology in 2015. Zinan first earned his master’s degree in entomology in Dr. Rodrigo Diaz’s lab at Louisiana State University in 2017. He then pursued his Ph.D. studies in a dual major program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior \under the supervision of Dr. Henry Chung at Michigan State University, completing it in 2021. Zinan continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow in Chung’s lab at Michigan State University before joining University of Kentucky.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series:
Wang Seminar
Dr. Zinan Wang | Wang Lab
Bio:
Zinan Wang obtained his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Beijing Forestry University in 2013. He came to the United States for graduate studies in entomology in 2015. Zinan first earned his master’s degree in entomology in Dr. Rodrigo Diaz’s lab at Louisiana State University in 2017. He then pursued his Ph.D. studies in a dual major program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior \under the supervision of Dr. Henry Chung at Michigan State University, completing it in 2021. Zinan continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow in Chung’s lab at Michigan State University before joining University of Kentucky.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series:
Wang Seminar
Dr. Zinan Wang | Wang Lab
Bio:
Zinan Wang obtained his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Beijing Forestry University in 2013. He came to the United States for graduate studies in entomology in 2015. Zinan first earned his master’s degree in entomology in Dr. Rodrigo Diaz’s lab at Louisiana State University in 2017. He then pursued his Ph.D. studies in a dual major program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior \under the supervision of Dr. Henry Chung at Michigan State University, completing it in 2021. Zinan continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow in Chung’s lab at Michigan State University before joining University of Kentucky.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series:
Wang Seminar
Dr. Zinan Wang | Wang Lab
Bio:
Zinan Wang obtained his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Beijing Forestry University in 2013. He came to the United States for graduate studies in entomology in 2015. Zinan first earned his master’s degree in entomology in Dr. Rodrigo Diaz’s lab at Louisiana State University in 2017. He then pursued his Ph.D. studies in a dual major program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior \under the supervision of Dr. Henry Chung at Michigan State University, completing it in 2021. Zinan continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow in Chung’s lab at Michigan State University before joining University of Kentucky.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series:
'Mast seeding, Macrosystems Biology, and Global Change: Patterns and drivers across time and space'
Dr. Jalene LaMontagne | LaMontagne Lab
Bio:
Dr. Jalene LaMontagne is the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Botanical Studies in the Department of Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Garden. LaMontagne is also a faculty affiliate with the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Before moving to her current position in 2024, she was a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at DePaul University in Chicago between 2011-2024 and was a founding faculty member at the Asian University for Women, the first liberal arts university for women in South Asia, in Bangladesh in 2009-2010.
She received her B.Sc. in ecology and MSc. in conservation ecology at the University of Calgary, and her Ph.D. in environmental biology and ecology at the University of Alberta. LaMontagne is a forest ecologist, macrosystems biologist and global change ecologist, with broad interests in the patterns and environmental drivers of synchrony and variability over space and time with a focus on tree reproduction (“mast seeding”). She has been studying mast seeding for 25 years and has been a contributing member and leader of international collaborative research groups working on continental to global scale research.
Abstract:
A key challenge is understanding how organisms respond to their environment and how they will respond to current and future global change. Patterns of tree reproduction have implications for forest regeneration, and high seed production years create resource pulses that have cascading effects across trophic levels. Mast seeding is a common reproductive pattern in populations of perennial plants that is characterized by spatially synchronous reproduction, which is highly variable over time.
A variety of hypotheses suggest why mast seeding occurs, including evolutionary responses to satiate seed predators or to increase pollination efficiency. Studies of spatial synchrony in mast seeding have historically been based on population means within local areas. Research in my lab focuses on the patterns and drivers of mast seeding across multiple scales from individual trees to continental scales, and we test hypotheses about the roles of weather conditions (e.g., temperature, precipitation) and the consequences of mast seeding. I will show that mast seeding synchrony breaks down at both local (within-population) and regional to continental scales.
At a continental scale, mast seeding reveals an "ecological dipole," characterized by significant anti-synchrony in high reproduction 'mast seeding' events in eastern and western North America, that is also seen in the dynamics of mast seed-eating small mammals. I will also present research on community-level mast seeding synchrony related to plant traits and test predictions for the effects of climate change on tree reproduction.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series:
'Mast seeding, Macrosystems Biology, and Global Change: Patterns and drivers across time and space'
Dr. Jalene LaMontagne | LaMontagne Lab
Bio:
Dr. Jalene LaMontagne is the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Botanical Studies in the Department of Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Garden. LaMontagne is also a faculty affiliate with the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Before moving to her current position in 2024, she was a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at DePaul University in Chicago between 2011-2024 and was a founding faculty member at the Asian University for Women, the first liberal arts university for women in South Asia, in Bangladesh in 2009-2010.
She received her B.Sc. in ecology and MSc. in conservation ecology at the University of Calgary, and her Ph.D. in environmental biology and ecology at the University of Alberta. LaMontagne is a forest ecologist, macrosystems biologist and global change ecologist, with broad interests in the patterns and environmental drivers of synchrony and variability over space and time with a focus on tree reproduction (“mast seeding”). She has been studying mast seeding for 25 years and has been a contributing member and leader of international collaborative research groups working on continental to global scale research.
Abstract:
A key challenge is understanding how organisms respond to their environment and how they will respond to current and future global change. Patterns of tree reproduction have implications for forest regeneration, and high seed production years create resource pulses that have cascading effects across trophic levels. Mast seeding is a common reproductive pattern in populations of perennial plants that is characterized by spatially synchronous reproduction, which is highly variable over time.
A variety of hypotheses suggest why mast seeding occurs, including evolutionary responses to satiate seed predators or to increase pollination efficiency. Studies of spatial synchrony in mast seeding have historically been based on population means within local areas. Research in my lab focuses on the patterns and drivers of mast seeding across multiple scales from individual trees to continental scales, and we test hypotheses about the roles of weather conditions (e.g., temperature, precipitation) and the consequences of mast seeding. I will show that mast seeding synchrony breaks down at both local (within-population) and regional to continental scales.
At a continental scale, mast seeding reveals an "ecological dipole," characterized by significant anti-synchrony in high reproduction 'mast seeding' events in eastern and western North America, that is also seen in the dynamics of mast seed-eating small mammals. I will also present research on community-level mast seeding synchrony related to plant traits and test predictions for the effects of climate change on tree reproduction.
Date:
Location:
THM 116
Event Series: