Evolution and Climate Change in the Oceans
In evolutionary biology, species can respond to changes in their environment in four distinct (but not mutually exclusive) ways.
They can:
As species face multiple factors of climate change (such as changes in temperature, salinity, acidity, etc.) they may respond differently to different factors. For example, sea turtles may respond to rising sea levels by moving but to changes in acidity by adapting. Each additional environmental pressure provides a unique challenge for a species to overcome. In this class, we will mostly be concerned with the first two responses - move and adaptHow do marine ectotherms move and adapt in response to climate change compared to terrestrial ectotherms?
The latitudinal shifts of marine ectotherms in response to climate warming can be more accurately predicted than the latitudinal shifts of terrestrial ectotherms. This is because marine ectotherms inhabit a range very close to their thermal limitations. They expand and contrast at both poleward and equatorward ends of their range in response to temperature change, whereas the movement of terrestrial ectotherms are more complex. (Sunday et al, Thermal tolerance).
[ed: Last time we met there was some discussion about why it is important to understand the rate of larval growth given particular genotypes in particular environments (reaction norms). Here are links to some references showing that rapid larval growth leads to greater larval survival.]
1. Effects of Natural Disasters
11. Global Evidence of Climate Change
13. Climate Change in Popular Culture
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Here is where you (the class) can start to flesh out this project. Give it some structure, pictures, graphs, links to datasets. But make it organized, so that any given page does one part of the narrative and links to other components. In other words, this won't be a single, linear document, but a complex arrangement of pages that link to one another so that complicated material can be concisely organized.
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