Monday, November 19, 2018 at 7:00pm
Hallock Auditorium, Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies
122 Elm Street, Oberlin, OH 44074
Jake Grossman is a 2018 biology and environmental studies alumnus and Putnam Postdoctoral Fellow at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. He will give a talk on "Smith's Aspen: An Ice Age Relic in the Sandhills."
The Niobrara River Valley in Nebraska’s Sandhills region constitutes a crossroads between the temperate forests of the Eastern United States and the heat- and drought-adapted species of the West. Springbranch canyons feeding into the Niobrara River are especially diverse because they can support both types of species. Junipers and cacti can thrive on a hot, dry south-facing slope just across a creek bed from birches and ferns on a cooler north-facing slope.
Confined to these cooler slopes in the vicinity of Valentine, Nebraska are just a handful of stands of aspen trees, long rumored to be unusual hybrids of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and bigtooth aspen (P. grandidentata). These so-called Smith’s aspens represent a point of local pride and an ecological and evolutionary mystery. What exactly are they and how will they fare in a warming and drying climate?
Sponsored by the Department of Biology and the Environmental Studies Program.
Jake Grossman
Rosalind Soltow
440-775-8973
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