DC Science Cafe: From exotic pet trade to urban biodiversity — Oct 3rd

From the exotic pet trade to urban biodiversity—meet the new socio-environmental scientists

Understanding the co-dependencies of ecosystems and human societies takes a synthesis of natural and social science. For her part, wildlife veterinarian and research scientist Elizabeth Daut is applying this synthesis to tease out how the interplay of government policy and the importation of animals primarily for the exotic pet industry opens ecosystems, native wildlife, and people to a range of health threats. Meanwhile, ecologist and evolutionary biologist Chris Trisos is looking into how the growth of urbanization—cities now cover 3% of Earth’s land surface—could reduce, or perhaps increase, the diversity among plant and animal communities across the entire planet. Join Elizabeth and Chris for a discussion about how their new approach to synthesizing disparate sciences, theories, data, and tools can open the way to asking and answering complex and consequential questions about people, society and ecosystems.

Monday October 3, 2016, 6:30  –  8:30 pm

Busboys and Poets, 1025 5th St., NW, D.C.

For info, contact Ivan Amato, DCScienceCafe@dcswa.org

This event is sponsored by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at the University of Maryland.