BioScience Talks

For this episode of BioScience Talks, we're joined by Peter Edmunds, Professor of Biology at California State University, Northridge, where he has worked for over 30 years. He was here to discuss his recent article in BioScience's new Perspective and Insight category, entitled "Why keep monitoring coral reefs?". The article describes a now 38-year study of coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands and highlights the value of long-term ecological monitoring.

Today's episode is a mostly onsite podcast from Chattanooga, Tennessee, where BioScience Talks was graciously hosted earlier this spring by the Association of Southeastern Biologists at their annual meeting. Our guests represent a broad range of exciting research and career stages. The meeting was striking in its emphasis on providing a welcoming environment for students. Learn more about ASB here (https://www.sebiologists.org), and be sure to attend a meeting. Our guests included: Amy Allen, Lee High School; Barbara Comer, Georgia Southern University; Skyler Fox, Georgia Southern University; Heather Joesting, Georgia Southern University; Chinyere Knight, Tuskegee University; Howard Neufeld, Appalachian State University; Jeremy Rentsch, Francis Marion University; Jennifer Rhode Ward, University of North Carolina Asheville; and Ashleigh Woods, Wesleyan College.

For this episode of BioScience Talks, we're joined by DeeAnn Reeder, Professor of Biology at Bucknell University and a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution. We spoke about a number of topics, including bats, disease ecology, and community outreach. Underlying that conversation was an important message about the One Health concept, which will be the subject of a forthcoming special issue of BioScience.

Potential contributors to the One Health special issue can find more information here.

Read Dr. Reeder's latest paper, Ecological countermeasures to prevent pathogen spillover and subsequent pandemics | Nature Communications.

For today's episode, we're joined by Catalina Munteanu, Researcher at the University of Frieberg in Germany, who has a background in geography and forest sciences. Also joining us is Volker Radeloff, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the SILVIS Lab, where he works on satellite imagery to look at land use. They were here to discuss the potential value of images from Cold War-era spy satellites for current ecological research and practice.

Read their article in BioScience.

Captions are available on YouTube.

For this episode of BioScience Talks, we're joined by Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute for a discussion about biorepositories, and specifically, a plan to place a biorepository on the Moon. Described in a recent article in BioScience, such a repository would take advantage of the Moon's naturally cold temperatures to provide safe long-term storage for cryopreserved animal tissues.