BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//jEvents 2.0 for Joomla//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Tijuana BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20240130T190000 RDATE:20240310T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PST END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20241103T010000 RDATE:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PST END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T010000 RDATE:20260308T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PST END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20261101T010000 RDATE:20270314T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PST END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20271107T010000 RDATE:20280312T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PST END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20240310T030000 RDATE:20241103T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 RDATE:20251102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260308T030000 RDATE:20261101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20270314T030000 RDATE:20271107T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:America/Tijuana PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:d76bed1e20e3ab44b5249cfddc48bfe7 CATEGORIES:Native Plant Talks CREATED:20241227T113609 SUMMARY:Bird Nests as Botanical Time Capsules, a Talk by Dr. Justen Whittall LOCATION:online only DESCRIPTION:Museum nest specimens are botanical time capsules containing invaluable his torical information about the plants from a specific place and time when th ey were built. Plants identified from historical nests can unlock new infor mation about the ecology of extinct habitats.\nIn this talk, Santa Clara Un iversity Biology Professor Justen Whittall describes his research on centur y-old nest specimens. For example, surrounding the San Francisco Bay estuar y were transitional habitats - the ecological gradient between the tidal ma rsh and the upland. These habitats were lost during the 1900s due to human- caused land use changes, and consequently, very little is known about this former native plant community. In attempts to improve our understanding of this endangered habitat, Dr. Whittall and his team sampled ~100-year-old so ng sparrow and savannah sparrow nests collected along the margins of the Sa n Francisco Bay estuary from natural history collections across the country . They were able to successfully extract DNA, perform PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction, a laboratory technique for studying DNA) and conduct DNA sequenc e analysis on over 200 total nest samples. From this, they have confirmed t he identity of some previous plant species from the transitional habitat an d added several new residents to this list.\nFrom these investigations, it is clear that historical nest materials can be used to reconstruct lost hab itats thereby contributing essential information to help guide ongoing rest oration efforts.\nLearn more by reading Dr. Whittall’s proof of concepts pa per in PLOS ONE from 2021, online at journals.plos.org/ plosone/article?id= 10.1371/journal.pone.0257624 (journals.plos.org/%20plosone/article?id=10.13 71/journal.pone.0257624). Dr. Whittall co-authored the paper with Alex Rink ert, Ben Carter, Tracy Misiewicz, Katie LaBarbera and Dan Wenny.\nDr. Juste n Whittall was born and raised in San Jose’s Blossom Valley. He took a fiel d botany course at Santa Clara University and discovered that learning coul d be done outside the classroom. He then studied conservation genetics of e ndangered monkeyflowers and columbines, particularly their spur lengths and flower colors, in light of their pollinators. He is a professor at Santa C lara University where alongside undergraduate research assistants, he studi es plants – their flower color, conservation, restoration and genomics.\nZo om registration: www.cnps-scv.org/npls-20250130 (https://www.cnps-scv.org/n pls-20250130)\n  \n X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Museum nest specimens are botanical time capsules containing invaluabl e historical information about the plants from a specific place and time wh en they were built. Plants identified from historical nests can unlock new information about the ecology of extinct habitats.

In this talk, Sant a Clara University Biology Professor Justen Whittall describes his research on century-old nest specimens. For example, surrounding the San Franc isco Bay estuary were transitional habitats - the ecological gradient betwe en the tidal marsh and the upland. These habitats were lost during the 1900 s due to human-caused land use changes, and consequently, very little is kn own about this former native plant community. In attempts to improve our un derstanding of this endangered habitat, Dr. Whittall and his team sampled ~ 100-year-old song sparrow and savannah sparrow nests collected along the ma rgins of the San Francisco Bay estuary from natural history collections acr oss the country. They were able to successfully extract DNA, perform PCR (P olymerase Chain Reaction, a laboratory technique for studying DNA) and cond uct DNA sequence analysis on over 200 total nest samples. From this, they h ave confirmed the identity of some previous plant species from the transiti onal habitat and added several new residents to this list.

From the se investigations, it is clear that historical nest materials can be used t o reconstruct lost habitats thereby contributing essential information to h elp guide ongoing restoration efforts.

Learn more by reading Dr. Whit tall’s proof of concepts paper in PLOS ONE from 2021, online at journals.plos.org/ plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.02 57624. Dr. Whittall co-authored the paper with Alex Rinkert, Ben Carter , Tracy Misiewicz, Katie LaBarbera and Dan Wenny.

Dr. Justen Whittall was born and raised in San Jose’s Blossom Valley. He took a field botany c ourse at Santa Clara University and discovered that learning could be done outside the classroom. He then studied conservation genetics of endang ered monkeyflowers and columbines, particularly their spur lengths and flow er colors, in light of their pollinators. He is a professor at Santa Clara University where alongside undergraduate research assistants, he studies pl ants – their flower color, conservation, restoration and genomics.

Zoom registration: ww w.cnps-scv.org/npls-20250130

 

 

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