Dr. Ryan McEwan
The Environmental and Plant Biology Colloquium Series presents Dr. Ryan McEwan on Oct. 12 from 11:50 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Porter Hall 104.
McEwan is Associate Professor and Environmental Biology Program Director at the University of Dayton
The host for this event is Dr. Brian McCarthy.
Title: Every cog and wheel: Biodiversity and ecosystem function on a rapidly changing planet.
Abstract: In this overwrought stinker, Dr. Ryan McEwan, yet again, tries to link Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function and, as we have come to expect, leaves the audience with more questions than answers. In part one, he brings to the surface a tale of terror in the form of Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) running amok, but this time asks the audience to consider both the forest and the streams that run through them. What are we to make of this Beast from Beyond? Despite McEwan’s maudlin meandering, we are left wondering, “do the macroinvertebrates even care?” Next, in a mind numbing twist, we find ourselves in the wilds of Taiwan. Taiwan??? Taiwan. Here we are faced with towering peaks, typhoons, steaming forests, oolong, and absolutely no resolution to a nasty web of interactions. McEwan tries to take the audience down the PATH to a solution, but as usual, we are left with a majority of the variation, unexplained. Finally, as if this wasn’t enough, the narrative shifts yet again, this time, unbelievably, to the Siberian arctic. There we are faced with not a Yeti (unfortunately) but a Yedoma, as in rapidly melting, carbon rich, permafrost. The concluding song of Fire and Ice pushes our suspension of disbelief beyond its limits, leaving us wondering how the larch forests manage to withstand such convolutions. For this reviewer, in the end, warming of high latitude forests gets a decided: Two Thumbs Down.
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