Dinner Speech - Diego Vázquez

On the consequences of missing dinner, or the implications of mistiming in ecological interactions

Being too late (or too early) for dinner may mean no dinner at all—a regrettable event if one is hungry. This sort of unfortunate gastronomic mistiming is quite common in the natural world, and represents a major source of ecological trouble. I will discuss my ongoing research on the consequences of such mistiming for bees: how nesting too early or too late in the breeding season may mean fewer floral resources (food and nest-building materials) and eventually poorer reproduction. I will also discuss the broader implications of this research in the context of climate change.