Abstract

This talk will focus on the joy and potential of synthesis science. Many years ago, I agreed to co-lead a synthesis proposal on biological invasions and climate change that would bring together a group of researchers that had never interacted before. Today, long after our first meetings at NCEAS, many of us in that group are still meeting regularly, and still publishing science on biological invasions together. I will start this talk by discussing what has made that group function well and describing some highlights of our scientific output over the years. I will then switch gears to talk about one area of current focus in my group that I think is increasingly amenable to synthesis science: plant water stress, our understanding of how it evolves and resolves over time, and how it is represented in the land models that are used in current Earth system models.

Speaker Bio

Jeff Dukes (Senior Staff Scientist, Carnegie Institution for Science) studies how plants and ecosystems respond to a changing environment, with a particular focus on invasive species. Since 2022, he has been a senior staff scientist at Carnegie Science, which is now based in Pasadena. Previously, he was a professor at Purdue University, where he held the Belcher Chair for Environmental Sustainability in the College of Agriculture and directed the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. Dukes received a Ph.D from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, both in Biological Sciences. He has been elected a Fellow and named a Public Engagement Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; he is also a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. As the director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, Dr. Dukes led the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment.

Join us in person at the University of Colorado, SEEC S327 or on Zoom.