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November

26th November Dr Giselle Walker

October

Dr Ralf Ohlemuller.

29th of October, 2015.

Dr Ralf Ohlemüller, Department of Geography, University of Otago.

'Should I stay or should I go? Biogeographical consequences of past and future shifts in climate space.'

Climate is one of the key drivers of the spatial and temporal distribution of life on Earth. Changes in global climate have led to changes in the spatial distribution of climatic conditions within a region (the region's climate space) in the past and they are likely to do so in the future. Such spatial and temporal shifts in a region's climate space have a wide range of consequences for the species, communities and ecosystems in that region. In this seminar I will outline some of these biogeographical consequences using examples of past and future shifts in climate space for a number of regions. I will discuss the relevance of understanding these consequences for questions related to evolution, ecology and conservation.

September

Professor Clive Ronson

24th September.

Professor Clive Ronson, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago.

'Recognition in the Mesorhizobium-Lotus symbiosis – how rhizobia sweet-talk their way into plants.'

Legumes inoculated with compatible rhizobia form nodule primordia from new cell divisions in the root cortex in response to Nod factors produced by rhizobia, and simultaneously a bacterial infection process targets these primordia. Mutational analysis of rhizobia has revealed a role for exopolysaccharides (EPS) in this infection process but the precise function of rhizobial EPS during infection remains unresolved. I will discuss our work that shows that Mesorhizobium loti EPS mutants show one of two symbiotically-impaired phenotypes depending on the stage of EPS biosynthesis at which they are blocked. I will also discuss collaborative work that has identified a putative plant EPS receptor EPR3. It is proposed that EPR3 binds EPS directly and distinguishes compatible and incompatible EPS to regulate bacterial passage through the plant's epidermal cell layer.

13th Annual Geoff Baylis Lecture - Professor Steven Higgins.

Professor Steven Higgins, our head of department is giving the 13th annual Geoff Baylis Lecture. The title of Steven's talk is The discovery of slowness: life in the plant lane.

Plants do many fantastic things, but they do them slowly, which make it difficult for us to appreciate them. How then will plants cope with rapid environmental change and our short attention spans?

Plants are reputedly obedient. After all they stand still and wait to be counted. But this apparent obedience masks their power as the true engineers of our planet and their disregard for human beings. It is an open secret that plants made the planet we now find so cosy—they manipulated the atmosphere, created soil and shaped our climate. Plants are of course under appreciated, and for good reason, for unlike competing deities it took plants more than seven days to achieve their wonders. But before the Anthropocene such slowness was not persecuted. Back in deep time, better did not mean faster. In deep time plants were afforded the time to evolve their way out of crises, re-engineering the world as they went. But the rules of the game are changing, our world is faster and the next crisis will not play out on geological time scales. How will plants deal with being forced into the fast lane?

Hosted by the Botanical Society of Otago, in conjunction with the Department of Botany. Drinks and nibbles from 5:15 pm in the Castle Concourse.

Date
Wednesday 9th September, 2015
Time
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Location
Castle 1 Lecture Theatre, University of Otago, Access from Albany Street

Kyrin Hanning & Kyle Hemming Honours Project Talk

Kyrin Hanning, Plant Biotechnology, University of Otago

Investigating genetic instability in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Spontaneous mutations in a Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 strain provided a unique opportunity to evaluate the importance of several genes. Phenotypes associated with light intensity, temperature, photoperiod and metabolism were investigated, and the potential of different mutations to contribute to these phenotypes was assessed. The implications of rapid spontaneous mutations for cyanobacteria in research and biotechnology will be discussed.

Kyle Hemming, Department of Botany, University of Otago

Mung bean performance under salinity-stress following electropriming treatment.

Testing if a novel electropriming technique, using a pulse electric field (PEF) treatment, improves mung bean seedling performance under adverse environmental conditions.

Thursday 3rd September 2015 - Samantha Dugdale (BTNY480), Leonardo Alves Rossi (BTNY480),

August

Sir Alan F. Mark

Emeritus Professor, Department of Botany, University of Otago
27th August

Advocating for nature conservation in New Zealand: Is there a dilemma?

I will discuss several of my research projects in pure and applied ecology and their relevance to sustainable management in a range of indigenous ecosystems, with relevance to nature conservation, over my professional career as an academic plant ecologist. Despite some successes, it became apparent over time that there are inherent dilemmas with such applied research which are inevitable and must be accepted or else. For me there were two major research areas, both inherently controversial, one involved with my main research field of the South Island high country, beginning in the mid 1950s, with my MSc project relating to their sustainable management from a runholder perspective. The second I refer to as a diversion since, immersed in high country tussock grassland research, I was requested in 1969, by the New Zealand Electricity Department, via the DSIR Botany Division, to undertake an ecological study to describe the shoreline features of Lake Manapouri in Fiordland National Park, ahead of Government's proposed lake raising (by up to 26 m; the level of Lake Te Anau, upstream, which was also to be 'managed'). The highly controversial nature of this proposal only became obvious to me over time. There were several other conservation issues along the way that I became involved with each of these had their own distinctive yet often similar aspects, as I will discuss in turn, and some but not all were associated with a range of dilemmas or brick-bats, or trade-offs, not all necessarily obvious at the outset.

July

Dr Heidi Meudt

Research Scientist, Botany, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Thursday 30th July

Systematics is the science dedicated to the study of biodiversity, and species are the fundamental units of biodiversity. Systematics research focuses on understanding questions of species delimitation, taxonomy and phylogeny. Systematic research also aims to understand patterns and processes in ecology, evolutionary biology, and biogeography, and is key for evaluating conservation status and managing threatened species. In this talk, I will give an overview of “next-generation” and integrative systematics, in which multiple sources of data are used to identify evolutionarily distinct lineages. I will then discuss examples from my own systematics research on New Zealand flowering plants, especially Plantaginaceae (Ourisia, Plantago, Veronica) and Boraginaceae (Myosotis). Through these examples, I will show how using an integrative systematics approach of analysing morphological, molecular, cytological and other data sets can aid species delimitation and new species discovery, and allow inferences into important questions regarding such diverse themes as diversification, variability and conservation of threatened species, polyploidy, hybridisation and biogeography.

June

Greg Nelson

Department of Botany
25th June, 2015

How does niche occupancy change through evolutionary time for diverse New Zealand clades?

Of New Zealand's 2,400 vascular plant species 82% are endemic, and the majority of these are in species-rich genera. Thus New Zealand provides a unique opportunity to investigate the processes involved in ecological diversification. Endemic clades display wide ranges of diversity and occupancy. Previous work has shown that earlier arriving lineages tend to be more speciose as well as dominant in local communities. However, the processes that create highly diverse and dominant clades remain unclear. By combining phylogenetic, distributional and trait data I will investigate how clade wide niche occupancy changes through evolutionary time and determine if species with earlier origins occupy larger areas in niche space. The focus is on non-forest genera, including Acaena, Chionochloa, and Festuca. Elucidating these patterns allows us to understand what factors contribute to the high diversity of these genera as well as infer potential mechanisms of diversification and community assembly for New Zealand flora.

May

Dr Adrian Monks

Landcare Research, Dunedin
28th May, 2015

Climate cues, nutrient hits and the mechanics of mast seeding

The importance of the mast seeding strategy to the autecology of masting species and as drivers of ecosystem processes is now widely appreciated, especially given the conservation implications of masting in New Zealand. However, mechanistic explanations for masting dynamics have historically eluded us, holding back our ability to accurately predict the spatiotemporal variability in mast seeding and future mast scenarios under a changing climate. Recent work has shifted the focus back onto mechanism and the field is currently vigorously debating the nature and role of synchronising cues and internal resources in mast seeding. I review some of these developments from my own work, as well as others, and highlight the implications for our understanding of present, and future, patterns of mast seeding.

April

Dr David Orlovich,

Department of Botany, University of Otago

Exploring the canopy soil microhabitat

Canopy soil builds up under epiphytes on the branches of trees. In old-growth silver beech (Lophozonia menziesii, Nothofagaceae) trees, the canopy soil is home to a diverse array of ectomycorrhizal fungi, which form symbioses with adventitious roots of the host tree. Dr Orlovich and colleagues are studying the microbial diversity in canopy soil using next generation sequencing, and this seminar will present an update of this research, focusing in particular the benefits and challenges of using DNA barcoding to identify fungi.

March

Dr Simon Jackson

Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago.

Nitrogen limitation induced changes in photosynthesis and carbon metabolism in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002.

Cyanobacteria are photoautotrophs that inhabit almost all areas of the world's marine environments. That they are able to thrive under such diverse conditions is testament to their flexible metabolisms and the plasticity of photosynthesis. The cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 is a euryhaline species, isolated from an estuarine mud sample obtained in Puerto Rico, and in its native environment experiences fluctuating nutrient, temperature and light levels. This talk will focus on recent work involving characterization of the response of Synechococcus 7002 to nitrogen limitation. During short-term acclimation to nitrogen limitation glycogen represents an important sink for the products of light-driven photosynthesis (ATP and NADPH). Therefore, we investigated the dynamics of photosynthesis and carbon-sink allocation in both wild type and a glycogen synthesis-deficient mutant (ΔglgC) of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002.

Thursday 26th March Physical Education Seminar Room 213/214 55 Union Street West 3.30pm.

February

Dr Robert Hofstede

Visiting researcher, Botany Department, University of Otago Consultant to International Organisations in Tropical Nature Conservation and Environmental Policy.

Nature Conservation in South America: a love story

An insight into the current issues in nature conservation in the most biodiverse continent on the planet; how these issues are being approached, what has been successful and what challenges remain. Told by a biologist who has been working with international conservation policy during the last decade, but who always kept his gumboots on.

Thursday 26th February, Benham Seminar Room, Zoology 3.30pm

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