E&E noon seminar will be presented by Allison Suddaby from the Kevin Kohl Lab.  

Wednesday, September 30, 2026
A219B Langley Hall
12:00PM EST

 The abstract and title are below. 

Title:  Redundant in Theory: Bridging Measured and Concluded Functional Redundancy in the Tadpole Gut Microbiome
Abstract:  Microbial functional redundancy, the idea that multiple taxa can perform the same function, is frequently invoked to explain why taxonomic composition varies while functional profiles stay stable. Yet this explanation is often applied post hoc rather than tested, and the literature rarely distinguishes between functional redundancy as a conclusion versus as a measurable metric. Macroecology offers a clearer standard for the conclusion: true functional redundancy should produce a saturating relationship between diversity and functional output, a pattern that can be tested rather than assumed. In host-associated microbiomes, we don't know whether measured functional redundancy scales with functional output, and whether that relationship meets macroecology's threshold for true redundancy.
This dissertation addresses that gap using tadpole gut microbiomes as a model system, focusing on cellulose degradation as a focal function. A field survey across a pond network spanning a land-use gradient will ask how community diversity relates to measured functional redundancy in both source and gut communities. A lab-based dilution manipulation tests whether varying measured redundancy shapes functional output, and whether that relationship saturates as predicted. Disturbance experiments examine whether measured redundancy confers functional robustness. Together, this work bridges measured functional redundancy with the broader conclusions the field draws from it.