In Defense of Plants Podcast Ep. 526 - Biodiversity & Ecosystem Function
May 18, 2025
Join Jake Grossman, a passionate plant ecologist from St. Olaf College, as he dives into the intricate links between biodiversity and ecosystem health. Discover how climate change affects forests and why understanding plant traits is vital for resilience. Jake shares insights on species interactions, highlighting the mass ratio hypothesis and niche complementarity. He emphasizes the importance of wetlands and diverse perspectives in ecology, while advocating for increased funding in scientific research to counteract environmental challenges.
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From Desert Kid To Tree Researcher
- Jake Grossman grew up in Phoenix and developed his love of plants exploring desert adaptations and gardening with his dad.
- He later shifted into wetland research, forestry school, and Peace Corps agroforestry, which led him to study trees.
Power Of Distributed Experiments
- Distributed, low-cost, repeatable experiments across many sites create powerful ecological datasets.
- Networks like the Nutrient Network and insect monitoring initiatives let researchers scale inference beyond single-site studies.
Biodiversity Change Isn’t Just Extinction
- Local biodiversity change includes species loss and gain, and often leads to biotic homogenization across sites.
- Urban yards worldwide show similar floras biased toward human-favored plant families like Rosaceae.
