Science Seminar Videos

Roy became fascinated with the study of fungi (the porcini family specifically) in the early 1970s while an undergraduate in California. Fungi are nature’s organic recyclers, fundamental to nutrient cycling in all ecosystems. However, relative to plants and animals, their biology is poorly understood. It was obvious that more exploration, description, and documentation of the world’s macrofungi was needed. Through surveys and global collaborations in the New World tropics, southern South America, Southeast Asia, and Australia, Dr. Halling uncovered new genera (including a bolete truffle), described more than 80 new species of fungi, and characterized new distribution patterns and biases toward Old World species concepts.

Roy Halling seminar Video

The region has a high percentage of species that are found nowhere else in the world, as well as devastating rates of deforestation. Critically endangered, with less than five percent of the original forest remaining, it includes some of the most diverse forests on Earth. For 37 years, NYBG scientist and current Curator Emeritus Dr. William Wayt Thomas has led research to discover and conserve the plants of this highly threatened region. An expert on the Sedge family (Cyperaceae), Dr. Thomas has also led investigations into the complex evolutionary history of beak-sedges (Rhynchospora) worldwide. His most recent studies of the genus have included phylogenetic analyses and a revision of section Pleurostachys, a group that is most diverse in Brazil’s Atlantic Coastal Forest. Join Dr. Thomas for a fascinating perspective on his long-term taxonomic and floristic research in Brazil, and learn how his collaborations with Brazilian scientists and community members have advanced understanding and preservation of its forests’ unique diversity.

Wayt Thomas seminar Video

Did you know that Darwin was the first person to demonstrate that some plants attract, trap, and digest insects? NYBG Curator Emeritus Robbin Moran, Ph.D., who has studied Darwin’s life and work for decades, discusses the ways in which plants played a crucial role in the great scientist’s revolutionary theory of evolution.

Darwin’s Passion for Plants Video

Beginning in 1982 as a graduate student, and throughout many years as a curator in NYBG’s Institute of Systematic Botany, Andrew’s global research program has led numerous expeditions throughout the Amazon rainforest and Southeastern Asia. Learn about the process by which Andrew has investigated the systematics and ecology of this biodiverse and economically important plant family, and the critical importance of this research for the conservation and sustainable use of palm trees world-wide.

Andrew Seminar Video

But the invention of this simple technology was a key innovation in transforming the study of these organisms from a minor subdiscipline of medicine into an independent scientific endeavor. In this webinar based on her newly published book, Herbarium: The Quest to Preserve and Classify the World’s Plants, Dr. Barbara Thiers discusses the intricate history of herbaria and how these biological collections have allowed scientists to characterize and understand plant and fungi diversity on a global scale.

The collectors and curators responsible for the approximately 3300 herbaria we have today (holding an estimated 393 million specimens) are diverse in national heritage, education and social status. The geographic, taxonomic, and temporal breadth of their legacy allows us to understand the diversity of the world’s vegetation in the past and present, and to predict its future. Herbaria still serve their original function – to document the occurrence of plants and fungi and provide a reference for their identification and characterization. However, recent technological advances that facilitate the study of life at both the molecular level and on a global scale can be applied to herbarium specimens to help address some of the most critical problems we face today. New ways of sharing information allow herbaria to demonstrate the importance of plants and healthy ecosystems to an audience far beyond the scientific community.

Herbaria Seminar Video

In this two-day, online symposium, a group of international experts in biodiversity, conservation, and extinction presents the state of knowledge, trends, causes, and consequences of the plant extinction crisis. In addition, the presenters discuss strategies for preventing the future decline of biodiversity. Each set of presentations is followed by a Q&A with presenters and the audience.

Part II:
Nokwanda P. Makunga – “Medicinal Plant Use in a Biodiversity Hotspot: A balancing act”
Matthew C. Pace – “Herbaria, Living Collections, and Extinction: Documenting loss, providing reservoirs for the future”
Reed F. Noss – “Towards a Comprehensive Strategy for Preventing Plant Extinctions”
Barney Long – “The Search for Lost Species”

Plant Extinction, Part II

In this two-day, online symposium, a group of international experts in biodiversity, conservation, and extinction presents the state of knowledge, trends, causes, and consequences of the plant extinction crisis. In addition, the presenters discuss strategies for preventing the future decline of biodiversity. Each set of presentations is followed by a Q&A with presenters and the audience.

Part I:
Thomas E. Lovejoy – “Symposium Welcome and Introduction”
Stuart Pimm – “Plant Extinctions: How many, where, and what can we do to prevent them?”
Maria S. Vorontsova – “Global Knowledge of Plant Extinction: What do we know? And should we trust it?”
Wesley M. Knapp – “Vascular Plant Extinction in the Continental United States and Canada”

Plant Extinction, Part I

As we learned during the Second Annual New York City EcoFlora Conference in 2019, The Historical Flora of New York City: Implications for Conservation Action, since 1800 an estimated 500 species of plants have disappeared from the New York City flora. These species can be found outside the City, but are no longer found in the five boroughs. Another 250 species are thought to be rare in the City, known from only one or two populations.

EcoFlora Conference 2020 Video

It is a gamut, which follows the many bandwagons of botanical research for the past half-century. His talk includes, but is not limited to, research done in Slice & Dice and Machete Botany (Anatomy and Morphology), Flyspeck Botany (Chromosome Cytology), Blender Botany (Phytochemistry), Spray & Pray Botany (Physiology and Morphogenesis), Pipette Botany (Molecular Systematics and Barcoding), Trekking Botany (Fieldwork), Hard Rock Botany (Paleobotany), and Search for Truth Botany (Phylogenetics). All of these disciplines contribute to and allow for understanding the natural world around us from different aspects and points of view.

Dennis Seminar Video

Learn how these collections can be used in conservation work and to study climate change. See wild relatives of crops, invasive species that have taken hold in different regions of the world, and herbarium specimens of plants that are now extinct.

Herbarium Tour Video

It stabilizes the climate of South America and stores more than 100 trillion tons of carbon, thus helping to mitigate global warming. Despite its biological importance and wealth of ecosystem services, the Amazon Forest faces tremendous threat, including widespread deforestation, unsustainable development, and increasing drought and wildfire. Its biodiversity is still incompletely known, and many large areas within the Amazon remain inaccessible and understudied. Dr. Benjamin Torke will report on his efforts to compile botanical inventories of protected areas in an understudied and threatened part of the Brazilian Amazon, the basin of the Tapajós River, and will discuss some of the challenges that he has encountered along the way. He will also report on concerning trends in climate, wildfire, and deforestation in the region and discuss strategies for avoiding a projected collapse of the ecosystem.

Amazon Under Threat Video