Research Perspectives On Biodiversity

DANBURY — From rare aquatic plants that thrive in river rapids and waterfalls in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest to migratory sea turtles that nest at grounds along Mexico’s Pacific coast, Western Connecticut State University researchers are blazing new trails in the understanding of the world’s rich diversity of life forms — and the human forces that are driving many to extinction.

Two WestConn biologists will present a seminar on “Researching Earth’s Biodiversity at WestConn” at 4 pm on Wednesday, April 28, in Room 219 of the Science Building. Presenters who will share perspectives drawn from their field work overseas in collaboration with WestConn students and scientific colleagues abroad include Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences Dr C. Thomas Philbrick, a botanist who has studied tropical aquatic plants in the Americas for more than two decades; and Associate Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences Dr Theodora Pinou, a herpetologist who has done extensive field work on turtle species in tropical maritime and manmade wetlands environments.

Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served following the seminar.

Dr Philbrick said the presentation will provide insights into the many ways in which habitat destruction, natural resource exploitation, population growth, pollution and other human-generated activities affect the ecological balance and accelerate the extinction of endangered species.

Unlike five previous periods of major extinctions caused by natural forces during the earth’s history, “the cause of the sixth extinction going on now is us, and everything that our activities entail,” observed Dr Philbrick, who has conducted field work to classify hundreds of previously unknown aquatic plant species native to waterfalls and rapids on rivers deep in the interior of Brazil, Venezuela, and other South American countries for the past 30 years.

“We know that hundreds of species are going extinct every day, but we still do not know how many kinds of life there are on the earth, and how many we don’t know about,” he added. “There are literally millions of species that have not yet been discovered or described.”

Similarly, Dr Pinou has been alarmed in her return visits to several of the field sites she has studied most frequently that certain species found during her first trips “are just not there anymore,” she said. While sweeping environmental forces such as climate change and habitat destruction can heighten the risk of extinctions, she emphasized that scientists also must explore factors at the micro-level such as disease and parasitism that may pose a more direct and immediate threat to some species.

“We need to look at what’s going on with these smaller things, such as the emerging parasites that may play a more important role in turtle extinctions,” said Dr Pinou.

The WestConn Science Building is on the university’s midtown campus, near the corner of Osborne Street and Dr James Roach Avenue. For more information, contact Dr Phibrick at philbrickt@wcsu.edu or the Office of University Relations at 203-837-8486.