Ecosystems and Drought

Associated HMEI faculty Corina Tarnita and Robert Pringle, associate professors of ecology and evolutionary biology, explore “how nature works” — the rules that govern the organization of ecosystems and the small-scale interactions that form large-scale patterns that can reveal the health of entire habitats. Early signs of drought and desertification could be crucial to the 40 percent of the human population living in savannas and other semi-arid regions. Pringle and Tarnita’s work has shown that termite mounds serve as “survival islands” that allow savanna ecosystems to rebound following drought — a dynamic that humans could duplicate by placing nutrients across struggling ecosystems in patterns similar to those formed by termites. Their research is supported by the PEI Water and the Environment Challenge project, “Causes and Consequences of Water-Mediated Pattern Formation in Arid African Rangelands.”

This video is part of a series that premiered during the Princeton Environmental Forum to highlight the environmental research of HMEI (formerly the Princeton Environmental Institute) as it marked its 25th anniversary.

(Video by Video Production Support and the Office of Communications)

Ecosystems and Drought

Publish Date

October 29, 2019

Presenter(s)

Robert Pringle and Corina Tarnita

Link to Video

https://youtu.be/1IcEdyHXEAI?t=15

Video Length

2:38

Associated HMEI faculty Corina Tarnita and Robert Pringle, associate professors of ecology and evolutionary biology, explore “how nature works” — the rules that govern the organization of ecosystems and the small-scale interactions that form large-scale patterns that can reveal the health of entire habitats. Early signs of drought and desertification could be crucial to the 40 percent of the human population living in savannas and other semi-arid regions. Pringle and Tarnita’s work has shown that termite mounds serve as “survival islands” that allow savanna ecosystems to rebound following drought — a dynamic that humans could duplicate by placing nutrients across struggling ecosystems in patterns similar to those formed by termites. Their research is supported by the PEI Water and the Environment Challenge project, “Causes and Consequences of Water-Mediated Pattern Formation in Arid African Rangelands.”

This video is part of a series that premiered during the Princeton Environmental Forum to highlight the environmental research of HMEI (formerly the Princeton Environmental Institute) as it marked its 25th anniversary.

(Video by Video Production Support and the Office of Communications)