I look forward to the April slow seminar, which will be held on Tuesday April 7, 17.00 to 20.00, at Jens Christian Schous vej 3, 8000 Aarhus C, building 1451, room 515..  Andrew Mathews, a colleague from the University of California, has agreed to open a discussion of niche-construction among humans and nonhumans. The late time will make that possible.  Sandwiches will be served: please rsvp to Mia Korsbaek by March 20 if you would like one.  

The following readings will form the basis of our discussion.  

Readings on Niche Construction and Plant Communication

Odling-Smee, John, et al, 2013,  Niche Construction Theory: A Practical Guide for Ecologists. The Quarterly Review of Biology 88(1):3-28.

Brenner, Eric D., et al., 2006  Plant neurobiology: an integrated view of plant signaling. Trends in Plant Science 11(8):413-419.

Kendal, Jeremy, Jamshid J. Tehrani, and John Odling-Smee,  2011  Human niche construction in interdisciplinary focus. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366(1566):785-792.

Karban, Richard, et al., 2006  DAMAGE-INDUCED RESISTANCE IN SAGEBRUSH: VOLATILES ARE KEY TO INTRA- AND INTERPLANT COMMUNICATION. Ecology 87(4):922-930.

Palmer, Todd M., et al. 2008  Breakdown of an Ant-Plant Mutualism Follows the Loss of Large Herbivores from an African Savanna. Science 319(5860):192-195.

There is also a review article on niches and plant domestication. I hesitated whether to include this- given our interests in non humans, it seemed that it might interest some of the anthropologists, but not be so useful for the ecologists. We could call this 'optional additional reading)

Smith, Bruce D. 2011  General patterns of niche construction and the management of ‘wild’ plant and animal resources by small-scale pre-industrial societies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 366(1566):836-848.

 Please e-mail Mia to get the articles.

I look forward to seeing you again in early April.