Blois Paleoecology Lab

Quaternary ecology and paleoinformatics

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#2015MMM

March 10, 2015 12:04 am / Leave a comment

The Blois lab is gearing up for the 2015 edition of Mammal March Madness! We are so excited about this years competition. Last year, we participated as a lab group. This year, we’re ramping up the intra-lab competition and each filling out our own brackets. Entries so far are pretty consistent: Jessica, Kaitlin, and Sarah are all predicting that Amphicyonidae will be the champ, but Chris predicts that Cath Palug will win it all. I’m throwing in a TBD prize for the lab winner(s).

The competition starts tonight. Err…I bet they’re already live-tweeting…I got delayed writing this post.

Totally random note: don’t forget the other geeky science event happening soon. This Saturday is Pi Day, so the Blois lab will have pie during our lab meeting on Thursday.

1st annual lab retreat!

December 12, 2014 6:47 am / Leave a comment

Yosemite Creek, right before it falls over the rim

Snow! A nice view of the Sierra high country

The Blois lab and friends went up to the Yosemite Field Station last weekend for the first annual lab retreat! We spent two nights up there, eating good food, playing games, and hiking around Yosemite.

The first night, we got to test out the new game Go Extinct! The whole lab loved it! This game was developed by Ariel Marcy, a former field assistant extraordinaire and fantastic undergrad at Stanford, now on a Fullbright Fellowship in Australia. The game itself is very clever and also beautifully designed. (FYI, you can get one for yourself here: http://www.steamgalaxy.com/). I can’t remember who won the game- definitely not me. We ended the evening with a long game of Monopoly (is it ever short?), which Kaitlin resoundingly won.

The lab testing out (and loving) the new game Go Extinct!

Kaitlin, hoarding her $500s.

The next day a subset of us hiked up Yosemite Falls to the upper falls overlook. We lucked out with beautiful hiking weather. It was warm, but not hot, and clear so the trail rocks weren’t slick. One of those beautiful days that reminded us of how lucky we are to live so close to such a beautiful place.

Danaan, Kaitlin, and Jessica in front of Upper Yosemite Falls

One of the best lunch spots in the world!

Upper Yosemite Falls

Blois lab welcomes Dr. Hillary Young to UC Merced

September 19, 2014 4:53 pm / Leave a comment

We are excited to welcome Hillary Young to UC Merced today. Dr. Young is speaking in the Quantitative and Systems Biology seminar today on her work linking biodiversity to zoonotic pathogens.

Information about Dr. Young and her talk:

Cascading Effects of Biodiversity Loss Across Spatial Scales
Friday, 9/19
1:30-2:45pm
COB 267

Abstract: Biodiversity loss is known to cause strong cascading consequences on ecosystem functions and services. However the net impacts of human disturbance and biodiversity loss on zoonotic disease risk re- mains poorly understand. Here, working across multiple scales in an African savanna ecosystem, we examine the mechanisms by which wildlife loss and associated disturbance may impact prevalence of a range of zoonotic pathogens, and explore the potential for synergy between conservation and protection of human health.

Bio: Hillary Young is a community ecologist, and an assistant professor at University of California Santa Barbara. Her research is focused on understanding the effects of changes in biodiversity loss on population and community structure and function. She looks at this question in a variety of systems using a range of observational, experimental, and meta-analytical approaches.

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