Lunch with a Scientist is an ongoing monthly lecture series at Cedar Creek. Each month, scientists present a general-audience lecture about their work at or related to Cedar Creek and take questions from the audience.

The series has been running since January 2019 as an in-person program. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was shifted online in April 2020, from which point recordings are available. Programs take place on the second Tuesday of each month (11:30am central time), either in-person at Cedar Creek, via zoom, or both. Details about speakers and delivery mode are at cedarcreek.umn.edu/lwas

May was an online-only program given by Dr. Neha Mohanbabu, a postdoctoral associate in the Isbell Biodiversity Lab at the university of Minnesota. Using a multi-decadal study, Dr. Mohanbabu is trying to understand if what we know about how plants respond to global change drivers from short-term studies can predict their responses over longer time scales, as is true under ongoing climate change. Her talk focused on the responses of some common prairie species and consequences for productivity and stability of ecosystems in a changing world.