Biology Fall 2025 Seminar Series – Amy Zaane, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Her research group focuses on interactions among plants, microbes and insects, and how they affect carbon cycling under current and future projected climates. To explore these questions, we also study ecological, evolutionary, and biogeographic determinants of species distributions by measuring physiological, morphological, and anatomical functional traits. We explore ecosystem-level consequences of differences in species and trait distributions, for instance, traits of plants, microbes and insects that most affect rates and forms of C release with feedback to the earth system. We ask these biogeochemical and macroevolutionary questions at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.