MDI Science Café — Tropical Rainforests: Resilience and Vulnerability

** To do our part in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and keeping our staff, supporters and community safe, MDI Biological Laboratory has moved all public events, courses and conferences to a virtual format. Our top priority is the safety of our employees, supporters and community. We will be hosting this Science Café online.**

The topic of the MDI Science Café for Monday, May 10, 2021 will be “Tropical Rainforests:Resilience and Vulnerability” presented by Susan Letcher, Ph.D.

Tropical rainforests were once assumed to be fragile ecosystems, easily destroyed by human activity. In recent decades, research has illuminated a remarkable capacity for resilience in tropical forests. But as human influence on the planet has expanded, new sources of damage have emerged. This Science Cafe will explore the kinds of stresses that tropical forests face in today’s world and the limits of their resilience.

MDIBL alumna Dr. Susan Letcher has taught plant biology at College of the Atlantic since 2017. Along with teaching and mentoring undergraduates, she collaborates with an international network of scholars to address large-scale questions in forest ecology, particularly in the tropics. A native of Southwest Harbor, she graduated from MDIHS and left the island in 1995. Before returning to MDI, she completed a B.A. at Carleton College in Minnesota, hiked the Appalachian Trail twice, completed a Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut, taught study-abroad courses in Costa Rica and environmental science at Purchase College in New York.

The MDI Science Café series is held on the second Monday of the month through May, when the bimonthly summer series will begin.

Our live online Zoom presentations will be recorded and uploaded for those who cannot make the live session. Please note, when Zoom records, it captures the audience as well as the presenter. If you do not wish to be recorded, please turn off your video camera. Audio will still be available.

MDI Science Cafés are offered in fulfillment of the MDI Biological Laboratory’s mission to promote scientific literacy and increase public engagement with science. The popular events offer a chance to hear directly from speakers about trends in science.

We ask attendees to please preregister online so that we can send you the link to the online presentation.