Holly Jones
Holly Jones, assistant professor in the NIU Department of Biological Sciences, will speak at noon Thursday, Feb. 21, at the next brown bag luncheon of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society.
The event takes place in Wirtz 216. Bring a lunch; light snacks (cookies, chips) will be provided. All are welcome.
Jones will talk on “Conservation and Restoration Locally and Globally.” Given the rise of human populations and continued exploitation of the ecosystems on which humans depend, restoration is becoming one of the most important tools in managers’ toolboxes.
She will first cover a meta-analysis she is conducting with collaborators that looks at ecosystem recovery and restoration after a wide variety of severe disturbances including agriculture, deforestation, invasive species and oil spills.
Her next focus will touch on one particular disturbance – invasive vertebrate introduction – on island ecosystems and her research quantifying ecosystem recovery after invasive vertebrate eradication on New Zealand islands.
Invasive vertebrates have been devastating to island ecosystems and island-breeding species. The majority of the world’s extinctions has occurred on islands and was caused by invasive vertebrates. Invasive vertebrates have now been eradicated from more than 700 islands globally with the goal of restoring island ecosystems.
Finally, Jones will detail a project that attempts to identify where coastal human populations are most vulnerable to climate change and where ecosystems might be able to serve a role in helping people adapt to climate change stressors such as sea-level rise and tropical storms,
Jones is a restoration ecologist who works at the intersections of ecological theory, community ecology, invasive species biology and ecosystem ecology.
For more information about the Feb. 21 event, email marko@niu.edu.
