Complex Interactions Between Forest Tree Species

Darwin Was Right Yet Again

Featured Speaker: Professor Christopher Wills

For a number of years, Christopher Wills and colleagues from around the world have been trying to understand how complex forest ecosystems work. They have recently developed statistical tools to examine the range of interactions between each pair of species in these ecosystems, and find them to be strong, complex, and unique to that species pair in that particular forest. This work has many implications, but one interesting result is that it supports an old conjecture by Darwin that most evolution must happen through such “between-species” interactions, rather than through the interactions of a species with its physical environment.
 

Presenter Biography

Christopher Wills received his BS and MSC in biology from the University of British Columbia and his PhD in genetics from UC Berkeley. He retired as Professor Emeritus of Biology in 2010 after teaching at UCSD since 1972. Among his many interests are the maintenance of genetic variability in human populations, complex ecosystems in rainforests and coral reefs, the evolution of diseases, and the evolution of our species. He has written The Runaway Brain, Children of Prometheus, and The Darwinian Tourist: Viewing the World Through Evolutionary Eyes.

Coordinator: Candace Gietzen