Mammal Biology: As Temps Rise, Species Shrink and Diversity Wanes

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/05/18/Dr_Elizabeth_Hadly_Mammals_and_Climate_Change

Stanford biologist Elizabeth Hadly explains some of the ways in which mammals may be effected by global warming. In addition to fluctuating populations and dwindling genetic diversity, she notes evidence suggesting that some species tend to decrease in size as temperatures get warmer.

-----

Stanford biology professor Elizabeth Hadly's research in the far reaches of the globe from India to Patagonia to Southeast Asia addresses the issues of what determines and maintains vertebrate (especially mammal) diversity through space and time and how that diversity is influenced by the environment. - California Academy of Science

Elizabeth Hadly is Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Departmen of Geology and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University. The research of Elizabeth Hadly probes how perturbations such as climatic change influence the evolution and ecology of Neogene vertebrates. She uses a combined field and laboratory approach to examine how ecological perturbations link or decouple levels of biological organization, because understanding the links among ecosystems, species, populations and genes is central to understanding how organisms exist, evolve and become extinct. She addresses problems in organismal biology from both evolutionary and ecological perspectives, primarily using extant mammals. One of the unique aspects of her overall approach is the focus on the decadal to millennial time scale, a scale that is little studied, although it is a scale that is integral to understanding links between ecology and evolution.

Professor Hadly's field research involves excavation of finely stratified Holocene paleontological sites and collection of modern specimens in western North America and Patagonia. Construction of a state-of-the-art ancient DNA laboratory has made possible the study of genetic structure of populations through time. Laboratory work includes morphometric and molecular analyses with the intent to extend the level of investigation down to the population and genetic levels. Ongoing projects at the macroecological scale include the study of the ecological and evolutionary factors influencing biological diversity through a comparison of temperate terrestrial vertebrate faunas in North and South America.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• climate
• change
• rising
• temperature
• wildlife
• animals
• species
• genetic
• genes
• nature
• selection
• evolving
• evolution
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv

[Truthiness231]

Quite interesting; the more data we have on how climate changes affect diversity of a species, the better (though I guess the doubters of both evolution and climate change (which often go hand-in-hand) are probably doubly upset from this data =P).

[merdufer]

@TsarSamuil You really think human beings are that unpredictable?

[LeGioNoFZioN]

@pye333 you would be surprised 

[pye333]

@LeGioNoFZioN Makes sense why you would deny it.

[LeGioNoFZioN]

@pye333 yes

[pye333]

@LeGioNoFZioN Christian? lolol

[bananian]

sweet, I'm small. That means I'll survive better than everyone else, haha.

[ultramerton]

I'm a little confused. Does anyone else think that the first graph could be the same if she was discussing a cooling trend? A species is adapted to a certain environment via natural selection, so if the climate changes in any direction, the population must either adapt or die. Wouldn't this too result in a decrease in genetic diversity? I'm not sure linking this to a warming trend is useful.

[LeGioNoFZioN]

sounds like bullshit to me

[Brothergeorge]

Groovy

[eyallev]

so basiclly, what she's saying is, "temp rise = good"

higher temps' lead to more food, more food leads to faster birth, faster birth leads to more births, more births leads to more pop', more pop' leads to genetic diversity, which means the spices are better equipped to face the future.