Biodiversity is under increasing threat from both a rapidly warming climate and the degradation and loss of natural habitats. All signs are that we are heading for Earth’s sixth mass extinction, and there is clear evidence that the loss of biodiversity has profound implications for the sustainability of human life on this planet.

Dr Nathalie Seddon, Director of the Biodiversity Institute, will discuss current and future impacts of climate change on the behaviour, distribution and survival of species, the implications of biodiversity loss for the functioning of ecosystems, and the action that is now urgently needed to address the biodiversity crisis.

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This seminar will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYoL6aPUtY

About the speaker

Dr Nathalie Seddon is the Director of the Biodiversity Institute, an Oxford Martin School Institute, Fellow in Biology at Wadham College, Research Associate of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama), and of the Centre for Tropical Research (UCLA).

She studied Zoology, obtained her PhD and held a Junior Research Fellowship at Cambridge University, before moving to Oxford as a Royal Society University Research Fellow in 2005. She was appointed Associate Professor in 2009, and became Director of the Biodiversity Institute in 2013.

Her research combines global comparative analyses with experimental field and lab studies to address three key questions: how do lineages radiate into multiple species, once species have formed how do they interact and assemble into functioning communities, and how can these insights help us to formulate effective strategies for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development?