Biology Researcher Visits UMass Boston – The Mass Media: News – The Mass Media

On Feb. 24, Christian Alsterberg, a biology researcher from The University of Gothenburg Sweden, visited University Hall at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His visit was part of the Biology Departments Biology Seminar Series, where speakers with expertise in the field discuss biological, environmental, and sustainability issues. The biology seminars take place every Friday during the Fall and Spring Semesters. Last Friday, Jarren Byrnes, a biology professor at UMass Boston, hosted the event and welcomed Alsterberg. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors alike attended.

The talk itself was titled, Habitat Diversity can Maintain Ecosystem Diversity.

Alsterberg and his coworkers conducted an experiment to investigate whether diversity in a habitat can maintain or increase the multifunctionality of an ecosystem. The researchers first proposed a hypothesis: an ecosystem with at least two or more habitats is the better functioning ecosystem, capable of producing more oxygen and nutrients to sustain its own health, and will function better than an ecosystem with less than two ecosystems both with less than two habitats.

Alsterbergs research also proposed that ecosystems all around the world are facing homogenization, with urbanization as a contributing factor. Alsterberg stated that although there is a general acceptation in the idea, he believes that the question of homogenization hasnt received explicit scientific attention.

Alsterberg, with his co-researchers from the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), conducted the experiment in Swedens shallow water environments earlier this year. The experiment took two weeks. The researchers gathered samples from these coastal systems and made model ecosystems. Each model varied in its diversity; some had more than one species, and others only had one. In one model, samples of moss and sand were included, while another model only included large samples of sand and only few strands of grass.

The researchers found that, in samples where large quantities of two or more species were included, bacterial activity increased, thus encouraging interactions between species, and ultimately increasing the diversity of the ecosystem and its self-sustainability.

In a brief interview with Mass Media, Alsterberg said that the purpose of the experiment was not only about understanding how diversity in smaller habitats are functional, but also in larger states.

Alsterberg said, Habitats have relative ecosystem functions in larger states as well.

Alsterberg stated his concern for habitat homogenization. In his research paper, Habitat diversity and ecosystem multifunctionalityThe importance of direct and indirect effects, he states, Homogenized ecosystems will reduce the diversity of species and consequently diminish valuable ecosystem functions and services.

Credits of the research paper was also shared with Fabian Roger, Kristina Sundbck, Jaanis Juhanson, Stefan Hulth, Sara Hallin, and Lars Gamfeldt, all of whom worked on the experiment with Alsterberg.

When a student from the audience asked whether an ecosystems functionality in coastal environments and urban environments can be comparable, Alsterberg stated that the functionality in these ecosystems can influence positive interactions between species.

He went on to talk about the process of urbanization and how it affects these ecosystem, stating, we must have good faith.

Christian Alsterberg is currently a Post-doctoral researcher at UMass Boston for the Biology Department.

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Biology Researcher Visits UMass Boston - The Mass Media: News - The Mass Media