January 4: Science Cafe

Date/Time: January 4, 2012 - 6:30pm

Location: Science & Engineering Library - Room 090/070 (basement)

Speaker: Karen Goodell, Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology

Topic: Restoring plant and pollinator communities on reclaimed coal mines

Summary: Mining activities destroy plant and pollinator communities, but reclaimed mines may be just as bad for these native species. My research aims to improve the success of habitat reclamation from a pollinator perspective and measure its impact on the development of pollinator communities and pollination function on surrounding lands. I am planting of native prairie species on a reclaimed mine to determine the factors most important in developing pollinator communities. Instead of ecological disasters, mined sites eventually may act as pollinator refuges that support native pollinators and pollination services to surrounding lands.

About our Speaker: Dr. Goodell received a MSc in Botany and Plant Sciences from the University of California, Riverside in 1994 and her PhD in Ecology and Evolution from SUNY Stony Brook. She was a Conservation Research postdoctoral Fellowship through The Nature Conservancy at Rutgers University from 2000 to 2003. She joined the faculty of The Ohio State University Newark in 2004, where she studies native bees and pollinators.