GEE SEMINAR SERIES

Dear All

The speaker for the next GEE seminar is Dr Rebecca Senior (Durham University). This seminar is open to all regardless of career stage. Please share details with colleagues, wider networks and those who may be interested.

Location: JZ Young LT, Anatomy & Medical Sciences Building

Host: Tim Newbold

Please email Tim Newbold if you would like a one to one with Rebecca.

The importance of microclimate for ecology and biogeography

Climate is a critical component of a species’ niche. Climatic variables like temperature, moisture and light determine the global distribution of habitat types, and this in turn determines what other species live where. Climate affects the day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year physiology and survival of all organisms. And yet, most of the time when ecologists talk about climate they are referring to coarse climate data, with a resolution 1000 to 10,000 times the size of the area in which most organisms operate. Worse still, these data typically represent the climate in free air, 1.5 m above ground in a flat field with no overhead vegetation - very few species call that home. In this talk, I will discuss some of the implications of using ecologically appropriate climate data, and how this can inform biodiversity conservation in a changing world. Microclimate ecology is rapidly yielding new insights and questions, and there is tremendous scope for significant advances through better collaboration between relevant disciplines.

Thank you

Muslima