SDG Detail

BIO 386: Conservation and Population Genomics

Postgraduate course

Project description

This once a week reading and discussion group will focus on adaptive capacity: how fast and how well species, populations and individual organisms react to climate change. A rapid change in environment imposes strong changes in ecological communities. Phenotypic plasticity can change physiology or morphology, patterns of natural selection can alter gene frequencies, demographic changes can shift species ranges, changes in species interactions can change communities in species composition. This seminar will explore what we know about adaptive capacity of different communities and different species. How fast can adaptation happen? How much can adaptation `solve� the problems generated by climate change? How do we measure adaptive capacity? We will pull readings from the literature and structure this topic into sections. Students will present their own or published work on adaptive capacity to provide examples and frame questions. At the end, we will design an international zoom symposium to highlight, define and articulate the role that adaptive capacity can play in managing and protecting complex ecosystems in the face of climate change.