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October 3 & 4: Yadvinder Mahli to Present Bullard Lectures
The Harvard Forest and the Harvard University Center for the Environment are delighted to co-present the second Charles Bullard Lectures featuring Dr. Yadvinder Mahli CBE FRS1, Professor of Ecosystem Science at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College, University of Oxford.
The annual Charles Bullard Lectures were established by the Harvard Forest in 2022 to honor and learn from renowned scholars of forest ecology and conservation. The Lectures are supported by the Charles Bullard endowment and are closely associated with Harvard’s long-running Bullard Fellowship, a distinguished scholar-in-residence program for forest research.
Tropical Forests and Planet Earth: A Macroscope View
October 3, 2024 | 5pm | Biological Labs Lecture Hall (1080), 16 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
The twin key environmental challenges of our times are to stabilise our climate system and reverse the decline of biodiversity. Tropical forests play an important role in addressing both these challenges. I explore what role tropical forests play in the Earth System and the interaction between tropical forests and climate change, highlighting some of my team’s recent research that combines detailed field data collection with satellite remote sensing. Field work and observations remain an essential component of understanding and stewarding our changing biosphere.
Captured Sunshine: An Energetic View of Terrestrial Ecosystems
October 4, 2024 | 11am | Harvard Forest Fisher Museum (Petersham) and Zoom
The biosphere was first described as “a planetary membrane for capturing, storing and transforming solar energy” by Vernadsky in the early 20th century. Every living organism and organism function in the biosphere is united, and can be compared, by the cascade of captured sunshine that powers it. But beyond powerful imagery, can an energetics approach to ecosystems yield a practical contribution to understanding how increasing human pressure is altering ecological function, and be a tool for assessing effectiveness of nature recovery? This talk explores this potential with a focus on plants, birds and mammals, the best documented taxonomic groups, in the context of terrestrial ecosystems. I draw on examples from Wytham Woods, intact and logged tropical forests in Borneo, and a broad regional examination of sub-Saharan Africa. An energetic approach to understanding life an earth can yield some surprising and provocative insights into our changing biosphere.
To register for these events, click here.
1 Commander of the Order of the British Empire; Fellow of the Royal Society
