March 4, 2026

12:00pm – 1:00pm Hershey Hall 158

Dr. Bob Holt
University of Florida

" SARS-CoV-2 Meets the Ecological Niche "

We all have lived through the pandemic (which may not be over).  In my talk, I will argue that a number of both basic and subtle ecological principles can be illustrated using SARS-CoV-2 as an example.  The most basic is exponential growth, but a number of others as well,  such as ecological niche concepts, and metapopulation dynamics, can be related to pandemic processes.  I will discuss a number of conceptual refinements in basic niche concepts that are needed to understand fully how spatiotemporal variability influences the persistence of metapopulations, comprised of sets of local populations coupled by dispersal.  These refinements broadly pertain to many issues in ecology and evolutionary biology, not just epidemiology. I will suggest that a failure by policymakers to understand some of these factors may have contributed to the global failure to control the pandemic.  This statement is not meant as a criticism of the past — humans were collectively groping in the dark for deeper understanding as the pandemic raged — but as a suggestion for what is needed to waroff and manage future epidemics — which are most assuredly somewhere on the  horizon.

Host: Chuliang Song