Biology Seminar Series - Aidee Guzman: "Fertile grounds for agricultural..."

"Fertile grounds for agricultural resilience: Harnessing multiple interactions in agroecosystems"

Dr. Aidee Guzman is interested in agroecological approaches that could harness biodiversity and ecosystem functioning for improved agricultural resilience. She is currently an NSF and UC Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine. Previously, she completed her PhD in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She studies how agricultural management impacts biotic interactions (e.g. between plants, insects, and microbes) across scales (e.g. shifts in community structure, cascading changes in ecosystem functioning). Her interdisciplinary research program also includes extensive collaborations with social scientists to examine the socio-political drivers and barriers inherent within agricultural systems. The overall goal of her research is to support farmers – especially those who are historically underserved – through research, education, and outreach that builds on their innovations and demonstrates ecological pathways to agricultural resilience.