February Meeting - Avian Scatter-hoarders and their Impacts on Plant Communities

Topic: Avian Scatter-hoarders and their Impacts on Plant Communities 

Featuring: Lindsay Dimitri

When people think of birds and seed dispersal, they generally think of a bird consuming a fruit and passing the seeds intact (endozoochory). However, many plants rely on scatter-hoarding by birds in order to disperse their seeds. We'll review seed dispersal by birds in general, then dive into an often-overlooked plant-animal interaction, with examples from local ecosystems as well as other fascinating interactions that have been observed globally.

About The Speaker: Lindsay Dimitri earned her M.S. at the University of Nevada, Reno studying the seed dispersal systems of western and Utah juniper. During her master's, she was the teaching assistant for Field Ornithology for 3 semesters helping students learn to identify the birds of Nevada. She's volunteered on 3 bird surveying efforts in Ecuador, and also surveyed herpetofauna in Costa Rica. Lindsay worked at the USDA Great Basin Rangeland Research Station for 17 years where she studied the impacts of invasive weeds on birds and small mammals, small mammal population dynamics, juniper seed ecology, and cheatgrass genetics. She recently began teaching 7th and 8th grade science at the Mountain View Montessori School, where she hopes to inspire future birders and naturalists.