Upcoming Seminars
Past Seminars
2019
2018
10-10-2018
Priyanga Amarasekare
10-03-2018
Blaire Van Valkenburgh
05-23-2018
Julianne Passarelli
02-15-2018
EcoEvoPub Lightning Talks
02-13-2018
Alejandra Rodriguez Verdugo
2017
05-31-2017
Cancelled- To Be Rescheduled
04-20-2017
Shane Campbell-Staton
03-08-2017
Elizabeth Hadly: CANCELLED
2016
11-30-2016
G. Darrel Jenerette
11-02-2016
Carlos Ruiz R-Miranda
10-19-2016
Elizabeth Heath-Heckman
10-12-2016
Sriram Sankararaman
2015
05-13-2015
Christina (Tina) Swanson
02-25-2015
Emilia Huerta-Sanchez
2014
12-10-2014
Wayne Getz [CANCELED]
05-14-2014
17th Annual Biology
05-14-2014
CANCELLED David Ackerly
02-12-2014
Jeannine Cavender-Bares
2013
11-13-2013
Barbara Natterson-Horowitz
10-02-2013
Priyanga Amarasekare
05-15-2013
Biology Research Symposium
02-14-2013
--CANCELLED--EcoEvoPub Series
2012
12-05-2012
Blaire Van Valkenburgh-CANCELLED
04-24-2012
Christofer Clemente
04-24-2012
William F. Laurance
04-11-2012
Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman
2011
12-07-2011
CANCELLED Jules Jaffe
05-11-2011
Biology Research Symposium: Michael A. Bell
04-19-2011
Ecolunch: Jochen Schenk
04-14-2011
Darwin Evolving Series: Amy Parish
04-12-2011
Ecolunch: John Sperry
03-08-2011
Ecolunch: Oscar Godoy Del Olmo
03-01-2011
Ecolunch: Brant Faircloth
02-15-2011
Ecolunch: Julien Martin
02-11-2011
Lawrence (Larry) W. Harding
02-03-2011
Margaret Jean McFall-Ngai
02-01-2011
Ecolunch: Francesco Santini
01-25-2011
Ecolunch: Tom Huggins
2010
11-23-2010
EcoLunch: J. Pablo Arroyo
11-16-2010
EcoLunch: Richard Norris
11-09-2010
Ecolunch: Soren Faurby
11-02-2010
Ecolunch: Brendan Choat
10-26-2010
Ecolunch: Raquel Monclus
10-12-2010
Ecolunch: Willem Frankenhuis
Karthik Panchanathan
09-28-2010
Ecolunch: Liza Comita
09-14-2010
Ecolunch: Adam Siegel
06-30-2010
Dr. Eva Ursprung and Dr. Max Ringler
06-01-2010
Ecolunch: Daniela Cusack
05-26-2010
Michael J. Sanderson
05-18-2010
Mel (Mary Ellen) Harte
03-30-2010
Ecolunch: Malin Ah-King
03-16-2010
Ecolunch: Adam Freedman
03-09-2010
Ecolunch: Kazutoshi Sasahara
03-02-2010
Ecolunch: Nathalie Seddon
02-16-2010
Ecolunch: Alvaro Sagasti
01-19-2010
EcoLunch: Maud Ferrari
2009
12-08-2009
Ecolunch: Michael Parsons
12-07-2009
Dr. Satoshi Mitarai
12-01-2009
Ecolunch: Ryan Harrigan
11-17-2009
Ecolunch: Graham Slater
10-20-2009
Ecolunch: Peter Narins
10-07-2009
Blaire Van Valkenburgh
10-06-2009
Ecolunch: Lauri Green
09-29-2009
Ecolunch: Catalina Estrada
Seminars
October 23 2013
12:00 LSB 2320
James Estes
U.S. Wildlife Services (U.S. Geological Survey), UC Santa Cruz
Sea Otters and Kelp Forests: an Ecological History of the North Pacific Ocean
Summary
My seminar will provide an overview and retrospection of the work my colleagues and I have done on sea otters and kelp forests over the past 43 years. I will first describe how sea otter populations have waxed and waned over the past two and half centuries and then explain how we have used these population changes to infer the influences of sea otter predation on the structure and organization of coastal marine communities. I will describe how sea otters initiate a trophic cascade that sweeps downward through herbivorous sea urchins to kelps and other fleshy macroalgae at the base of the food web. I will show that the transition between sea urchin barrens and kelp forests occurs as an abrupt phase shift with changing sea otter densities and explain why these alternate states are characterized by hysteresis. I will then describe a few of the many indirect effects on other species and ecological processes that spin off the sea otter-urchin-kelp trophic cascade. Next I will explain how these food web dynamics are influenced by linkage and connectivity over large scales of space and time. Finally, I will discuss several dimensions to the reciprocity between ecology and evolution in the sea otter-kelp forest system.
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