Lec 34: Adaptation to Climate Change

Question 1

temperature increase

Answer 1

temperature increases will have the greatest effects on biological life :
wildlife
agriculture
human mortality rates

there are biological limits to the temperature a species can survive in
often genetically linked
but can be plastic or changeable

Question 2

assisted migration

Answer 2

we cant make large scale changes to local temperature conditions
can we instead move species to an area where their preferred temperature is still found

through anthropocentric action, facilitating the migration of a species to a novel range

technologically feasible
but there are things to consider in implementation

islands, sky islands and northern communities
- species adapted northern latitudes may have no where left to migrate to
- sky islands: species on mountains often adapted to high latitudes
(cannot leave the mountain environment in order to shift range with climate change -> likey extinction)
we can lose entire communities on islands to rising sea levels

Question 3

what about native species in the new site ?

Answer 3

arent we now facilitating the movement of invasive species?

Question 4

can the target species even survive assisted migration?

Answer 4

establishing a new species is not as simple as spreading a few seeds , many potential biotic interactions to consider

Question 5

major issue with most assisted migration studies:

Answer 5

we rarely study complex community-level interactions specifically, few biotic interactions

main factors to consider:
- top-down factor
(pollinators, herbivores/parasite)
- bottom-up factors
(microbiome, interspieces interactions)

Question 6

study l