Dr. Holly Moeller is a post-doctoral fellow at the Biodiversity Research Centre at UBC. The tentative title of her talk is:

Trade, Borrow, or Steal: Acquired metabolism in community ecology

From Dr. Moeller:

I am a community ecologist and biological oceanographer studying acquired metabolic potential (AMP). When organisms acquire metabolism (i.e., gain access to metabolic pathways that aren’t hard-wired into their own DNA), they fundamentally change their ability to interact with the living and non-living components of their environment. Examples of AMP surround us: bacteria gain antibiotic resistance by incorporating DNA from their environment; corals gain the capacity to turn sunlight into energy by incorporating algal endosymbionts. Even we humans, with our vast complement of gut microbiota, benefit by playing temporary host to other metabolisms.

I use a combination of mathematical models, field observations, and lab experiments to figure out how AMP changes the dynamics of living communities and understand what ecological pressures lead to the evolution and maintenance of AMP.