IB Seminar: Dr. David Wagner, University of Connecticut

Synopsis: Wagner will provide an update on global insect decline matters, emphasizing research that has surfaced in the last two years. Points of emphasis will include the declines of common species, heterogeneity in the rates of declines, data gaps, principal stressors, and climate change as a driver. The talk will close with a discussion of solutions to stem losses of insect biodiversity.

Biosketch

Dr. David L. Wagner is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology with core research interests in the biosystematics of Lepidoptera, insect decline, and invertebrate conservation, but he has also published on bees, dragonflies, insect behavior, insect ecology, and insect taxonomy. He has authored 10 books and 230 scientific papers. Much of his current focus is on the consequences of global insect declines, and especially the role of drought as a primary driver of faunal change across aridlands of the American Southwest and tropics. While his core research interests are in phylogenetics and taxonomy of Lepidoptera, he has many ecological collaborations that anchor to his four decades of hostplant data for caterpillars. He and coauthors have used this insect-plant database to address matters of ecological specialization, latitudinal diversity gradients, and species packing. Wagner has several publications on the importance of early successional habitats to plants, insects, and other wildlife in forested landscapes, as well as studies of imperiled species of butterflies.