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Anthony Ricciardi (Redpath Museum and McGill School of
Environment)
Driven by the movement of people and cargo across the planet,
thousands of species of plants, animals and microbes are spreading
into new regions faster and farther than at any other time in
Earth's history. These "biological invasions" can cause
extinctions, disrupt ecosystems, alter natural resources, threaten
human health, and even pose national security problems. Despite
these risks, some ecologists have advocated planned invasions to
rescue species threatened by climate change. Termed "assisted
colonization", their proposal involves moving potentially large
numbers of species to favorable habitats well beyond their native
range. This Cutting Edge Lecture in
Science evaluates this controversial strategy and the ecological
and societal impacts of invasions worldwide.
Anthony Ricciardi is an associate professor in both the Redpath
Museum and the McGill School of Environment, where he teaches
courses on animal diversity, environmental science, and the ecology
of species invasions. He received his PhD from McGill (in
1997), and was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Université Laval and
a Killam Fellow at Dalhousie University. He is an associate editor
for the journal Diversity and Distributions and the
journal Biological Invasions, and he serves on the
scientific committee of the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species
Network - a national NSERC-funded research group that assesses the
risks of invasion in Canada's lakes, rivers and coastal waters.
Initiated in 2003 with the express purpose of fostering communication between scientists in different disciplines as well as between scientists and the public, Cutting Edge Lectures in Science are made possible through the generous support of Faculty of Medical Sciences (Professor Marianna Newkirk, Associate Dean Research), Faculty of Arts (Professor Christopher Manfredi, Dean), Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (Professor Chandra Madramootoo, Dean), Faculty of Science (Professor Martin Grant, Dean) and the Centre for Applied Mathematics in Bioscience and Medicine (CAMBAM). For more information, please call 514-398-4094.