Ecologist speaking on the battle to save some of the earth’s rarest wildlife
James Porter, renowned ecologist and Meigs Professor of Ecology at the University of Georgia, will talk about the work he does with student researchers on butterflies and the effects of climate change in the cloud forests of Costa Rica Tuesday, Feb. 17, from noon to 1 p.m. in Student Center 2222. Porter, who received his Ph.D. from Yale, has spent his career studying the ecologies of the Floridian and Caribbean coral reefs, as well as the cloud forests of Monteverde, near UGA's Costa Rica campus. An expert on the effects of climate change on wildlife, he has testified before Congress five times, most recently on the effects of global warming on coral reefs. In addition to their study of butterflies in Costa Rica, his group also discovered one of the rarest swallowtails in the world in a newly reforested area. On display at the talk will be an extensive collection of unique and exquisite tropical Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) from high elevation cloud forests.
Tags: ecology, James Porter, Wildlife