TIME CHANGE! Seminar Andrew J. Tanentzap: The Ecosystem needs more evolution
Date:
Monday, May 19, 2014 15:15 - 16:15
Duration:
1 Hour
Categories:
Speaker
Dr. Andrew J. Tanentzap
Dept. Of Plant Sciences, Cambridge University (http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/research/andrewtanentzap)
Title:
Titel: ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY NEEDS MORE EVOLUTION
Host: Maria Eriksson
Room: Lilla hörsalen, KB3A9
Abstract: Disturbances associated with global change are degrading natural ecosystems. But policy-makers and managers need predictions of how ecosystem functioning and patterns of biodiversity might respond to disturbances in order to intervene. My research group is addressing these needs by tackling problems around water security. We are focusing on how alterations to vegetation associated with land-use change and water extraction are, respectively, reducing the productivity of food webs in boreal lakes and persistence of biodiversity hotspots in dryland landscapes. We are finding that the local outcomes of global change may ultimately be driven by the evolutionary history of traits determining species' responses to disturbance and their competitive abilities.
Older lineages that have had longer to diversify within niche space may lose their ecological advantages as disturbance intensifies. We are now interested in testing these ideas over much larger macro-ecological scales and linking evolution in the expression of response traits to underlying genetic processes.
Dr. Andrew J. Tanentzap
Dept. Of Plant Sciences, Cambridge University (http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/research/andrewtanentzap)
Title:
Titel: ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY NEEDS MORE EVOLUTION
Host: Maria Eriksson
Room: Lilla hörsalen, KB3A9
Abstract: Disturbances associated with global change are degrading natural ecosystems. But policy-makers and managers need predictions of how ecosystem functioning and patterns of biodiversity might respond to disturbances in order to intervene. My research group is addressing these needs by tackling problems around water security. We are focusing on how alterations to vegetation associated with land-use change and water extraction are, respectively, reducing the productivity of food webs in boreal lakes and persistence of biodiversity hotspots in dryland landscapes. We are finding that the local outcomes of global change may ultimately be driven by the evolutionary history of traits determining species' responses to disturbance and their competitive abilities.
Older lineages that have had longer to diversify within niche space may lose their ecological advantages as disturbance intensifies. We are now interested in testing these ideas over much larger macro-ecological scales and linking evolution in the expression of response traits to underlying genetic processes.