Our Thursday science seminars are free and open to the public. Because they are directed towards a scientific audience, they are more technical than our evening lectures. Visit our Evening Lecture Page to learn more about our free Bay Optimism evening lecture series.

Summary: Most studies of the ecological impacts of tropospheric ozone have focused on either individuals or entire systems. These studies have emphasized how ozone affects processes such as photosynthesis (at the individual scale) or productivity (at the system scale).  Less attention has focused on how ozone might alter species interactions. This talk reports on two areas my lab has been exploring regarding ozone and species interactions.  First, I discuss how species-specific differences in ozone impacts might affect the relationships among species and how those changed relationships could augment or dampen the direct effects of ozone on ecosystem processes. I discuss computational results for southeastern forests and suggest a large-scale atmospheric feedback based on the mechanisms underlying species-specific differences.  Second, I present some recent empirical data on plant-pollinator interactions which demonstrate that, although ozone oxidizes floral volatiles, as was predicted a decade ago, the impacts on pollinators are smaller than expected because of pollinator behavioral responses. Taken together, these two lines of research suggest that species interactions have strong effects on both the direction and magnitude of ozone impacts on ecology.