Join Alabama Audubon and the University of Alabama - Birmingham Libraries in co-hosting a special guest speaker as part of Alabama Audubon's Speaker Series! This June's speaker, Robin Lloyd, is a recent recipient of the Alabama Audubon Walter F. Coxe Award and will be discussing his research on Gopher Tortoises in Alabama.
Location Address For Event: 917 13th Street South, Sterne Library, Room 174, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, United States
Meet in Sterne Library Room 174
This event is free but, registration is required.
Seminar Summary: Title "The Gopher Tortoise: Meet the Hidden Architect of Southwest Alabama’s Longleaf Pine Forests ”An introduction to the gopher tortoise, its unique biology, and its role as a keystone species in longleaf pine forests, with a focus on a little-known population in southwest Alabama. The contrasting conservation status of gopher tortoises in Mobile County, where the species is federally protected, and Baldwin County, where it is protected only at the state level, is described. A unique, hidden faunal community that uses gopher tortoise burrows is observed, along with the first empirical demonstration that tortoise herbivory regulates and increases understory plant biodiversity in longleaf pine forests. Long-term changes in tortoise persistence and spatial distribution across federally protected and unprotected populations are presented, highlighting implications for conservation of this critical promoter of biodiversity in Alabama.
About Robin: Robin Lloyd is a fourth-year PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto in the Rollinson Lab, where he investigates the genetic architecture of temperature-dependent sex determination in reptiles using quantitative genomics. His research integrates population genetics, developmental physiology, and climate change biology to better understand how environmental and genetic factors interact to shape sex ratios in natural populations. Robin has over a decade of experience working with vertebrate systems, primarily herpetofauna, with additional experience in mammal and bird conservation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and marine ecology work in the Gulf of Mexico at Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
He completed his undergraduate degree in 2017 at Auburn University, followed by his Master’s degree in 2020 from the University of South Alabama, where he researched gopher tortoise ecology and spatial distribution in southwest Alabama, before working as a wetlands ecologist for several years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers–Mobile District. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada, where he conducts long-term mark–recapture research on painted turtles in Algonquin Provincial Park, focusing on sex ratio dynamics and genome-wide variation in the subject population. In addition to his research, Robin teaches several courses at the University of Toronto, including vertebrate biodiversity and community ecology, as well as field courses in the temperate forests of Canada and the tropical rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon.
Accessibility: The library has seats and bathrooms. The building is ADA accessible and sidewalks are paved.