Dear colleagues,
Biology Thursday seminar will start the year 2024 with an on-site seminar 25th of January at 2 pm in room IT113 - note unusual time!
Our speaker is Prof. Janne Soininen from the university of Helsinki, on "Diatom island biogeography"
Island biogeography has traditionally been investigated for larger organisms such as plants, birds or insects while biodiversity
patterns and drivers for micro-organisms on islands are poorly understood. In this seminar, I will talk about diatom biodiversity on islands globally and
how it relates to similar sized continental areas. The results show that island diatoms do not show species-area relationships and biodiversity
is lower on islands than continental areas. However, such findings may be explained by island environmental conditions
rather than dispersal limitation. The ongoing BIOISLAND project will further reveal various aspects of island biodiversity and
how they relate to ecosystem functions.
Heikki