Serpentine: Evolution and Ecology with Dr. Susan Harrison

If you’re a northern Californian plant lover, chances are you’ve seen serpentine (a.k.a. serpentinite or ultramafic rock): a scaly greenish or red-brown rock that occurs in patchy outcrops, notable for their relatively stunted vegetation including the world’s smallest oak (Quercus durata), and on which California botanists often find naturally-rare, soil-restricted species such as the jewelflowers (Streptanthus) and wild flaxes (Hesperolinon). Susan’s talk will touch upon the distribution, geology, history, and human uses of serpentine, including why Highway 1 keeps landsliding, as well as how serpentine affects plant diversity and plant ecology in this part of the world. Susan Harrison is an ecologist known for her work on the dynamics of natural populations and the diversity of ecological communities. Early in her career she was mainly known for testing and revising theories about the influence of naturally fragmented habitats on population persistence and community dynamics. More recently she has become known for analyzing how plant communities respond to natural climatic variation and recent climate change. She was born and raised in Sonoma, California. At UC Davis she received a bachelor’s degree in Zoology and a Master’s degree in Ecology. At Stanford University she was awarded a PhD in Biology. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, following which she joined the faculty of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis. She is a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and has been a Vice-President of the American Society of Naturalists.