DANBURY, CONN. — From rare aquatic plants that thrive in river rapids and waterfalls in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest to migratory sea turtles that nest at grounds along Mexico’s Pacific coast, Western Connecticut State University researchers are blazing new trails in the understanding of the world’s rich diversity of life forms — and the manmade forces that are driving many to extinction.

Two WCSU biologists will present a seminar on “Researching Earth’s Biodiversity at WestConn” at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28, in Room 219 of the Science Building on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. Presenters who will share perspectives drawn from their field work overseas in collaboration with WestConn students and scientific colleagues abroad include Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences Dr. C. Thomas Philbrick, a botanist who has studied tropical aquatic plants in the Americas for more than two decades; and Associate Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences Dr. Theodora Pinou, a herpetologist who has done extensive field work on turtle species in tropical maritime and manmade wetlands environments. Admission will be free and the public is invited to attend; light refreshments will be served following the seminar.

Philbrick said the presentation, part of the WCSU Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences Research Seminar Series, will provide insights into the many ways in which habitat destruction, natural resource exploitation, population growth, pollution and other human-generated activities affect the ecological balance and accelerate the extinction of endangered species.

Unlike five previous periods of major extinctions caused by natural forces during the earth’s history, “the cause of the sixth extinction going on now is us, and everything that our activities entail,” Philbrick observed. “We know that hundreds of species are going extinct every day, but we still do not know how many kinds of life there are on the earth, and how many we don’t know about. There are literally millions of species that have not yet been discovered or described.”

For the past 20 years, he has conducted field work to classify hundreds of previously unknown aquatic plant species native to waterfalls and rapids on rivers deep in the interior of Brazil, Venezuela and other South American countries. By identifying the taxonomy of these species and mapping the locations where they are found, he has developed an important tool to assist in predicting when human intervention — such as the construction of hydroelectric dams that will flood river valleys many miles upstream — will lead to the destruction of the habitat vital to the endangered species’ survival.

“If you choose to allow a species to go extinct, you need to know you are doing it, and understand what the impact will be when you change the ecology of an area,” Philbrick said. The disappearance of aquatic plants critical to the feeding of certain fish species in the Amazon watershed, for example, could cause profound and lasting damage to sport fishing and ecotourism in the region affected, he noted. “We need to ask, what can this species do for us down the road? If they’re no longer there, we’ll never know.”

Similarly, Pinou has been alarmed in her return visits to several of the field sites she has studied most frequently that certain species found during her first trips “are just not there anymore,” she said. While sweeping environmental forces such as climate change and habitat destruction can heighten the risk of extinctions, she emphasized that scientists also must explore factors at the micro-level such as disease and parasitism that may pose a more direct and immediate threat to some species. “We need to look at what’s going on with these smaller things, such as the emerging parasites that may play a more important role in turtle extinctions,” she observed.

Apart from sharing their insights into the applications of their research to the study of ecological biodiversity, Pinou said the seminar “is all about letting our students know what they could be doing, and should be doing in the environmental sciences.” Philbrick agreed that students who have collaborated in his field studies have gained an important lesson about the process of doing scientific work that cannot be taught in the classroom, and the relevance of that work to society.

“We’re looking at societal problems of conservation and extinction,” he said. He welcomes young researchers to carry on the work he began two decades ago: “Today at WestConn we have the best and most diverse samples of these plant species to be found anywhere in North America, but there is so much more to understand about the taxonomy of these environments.”

For more information, contact Phibrick at philbrickt@wcsu.edu or the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.

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