vogelwarte.ch BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and climate
change by Niklaus. E. Zimmermann Today: Damaris Zurell
Slide 2
Course objectives On successful completion of this module
students should be able to: -demonstrate a clear understanding of
the ecological niche concept -understand and explain influence of
climate on plant distribution -recognize the link between
functional ecological adaptation and niche evolution -select and
apply appropriate statistical methods to niche modelling in R
-apply raster-based spatial analyses in R BIO 232 Macroecology,
niche evolution and climate change1 27.11.2014
Slide 3
Course objectives Lectures and discussions Written exam
Practicals Labwork and lab report Develop ideas, develop workflows,
discuss and report = Learn to be a scientist BIO 232 Macroecology,
niche evolution and climate change2 27.11.2014
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Todays objectives General introduction to macroecology and
macroevolution Concept of ecological niche and spatial modelling
Introduction to R First practical Tomorrow: regression, GIS in R
BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change3
27.11.2014
Slide 5
What is macroecology? studies relationships between organisms
and their environment seeks to characterize and explain statistical
patterns of abundance, distribution, and diversity BIO 232
Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change4 27.11.2014 Brown
JH 1995. Macroecology. Univ. Press, Chicago.
Slide 6
What is macroecology? Analyses of multi-species ecological
patterns and processes at large spatial and temporal scales Seeks
understanding of ecological systems through studying (emergent)
properties of the whole = top-down Contrast: bottom-up = studying
component parts BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and climate
change5 27.11.2014 Gaston KJ, Blackburn TM 2000. Pattern and
Process in Macroecology. Blackwell, Oxford.
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What is macroecology? BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and
climate change6 27.11.2014 Biogeography Tries to understand large
scale distributions of living things Ecology Tries to understand
interactions among organisms and (biotic and abiotic) environment
Macroecology Intersects different fields of biology and tries to
explain large scale ecological patterns and processes in space and
time Evolutionary Biology Tries to understand evolutionary
processes that produced diversity of life on Earth Focuses on
explanation and model building and not on simple description. Uses
natural variation as observed in nature to disentangle process from
pattern, and identify general mechanisms or ecological laws.
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What is macroecology? In its early developments, macroecology
has been mainly descriptive and only more recently transforms to an
analytical explanatory science BIO 232 Macroecology, niche
evolution and climate change7 27.11.2014 Land plant of Britain from
Watson (1859) Description Explanation Local community filters by
Thuiller et al. (2013)
Slide 9
Macroecology challenges 1.Integrate past into macroecological
analyses, e.g. phylogeny and historical biogeography, to understand
underlying reasons for contemporary patterns. 2.Explicit
consideration of local processes shaping large-scale patterns to
understand fine-grain variability in nature and to facilitate
better predictions of future changes. 3.Large-scale, high-quality
data from broad spectrum of taxa and regions 4.Develop (ever more)
sophisticated statistical analysis techniques e.g. for accounting
for sampling bias. BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and
climate change8 27.11.2014 After Beck et al. (2012) Ecography 35:
673-683.
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Space: global species richness BIO 232 Macroecology, niche
evolution and climate change9 27.11.2014 Orme et al. (2005) Nature
436, 1016-1019
http://www.scifac.hku.hk/news/any/dynamic-changes-in-gbp
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Space: biomes of the world BIO 232 Macroecology, niche
evolution and climate change10 27.11.2014 Nature education
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Space and time: expansion & succession BIO 232
Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change11 27.11.2014
Svenning & Skov (2004) Ecology Letter 7: 565-573
www.sciencepartners.info
Slide 13
Macroevolution Speciation, adaptive radiations, extinctions,
co- evolution, convergent trait evolution Relatedness of species
BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change12
27.11.2014 Describes evolutionary relationships that occur over
relatively long periods of geologic time and result in
diversification between species Adapative radiation in Darwins
finches http://www.vce.bioninja.com.au
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Macro- vs. microevolution? in contrast with microevolution,
which refers to evolutionary changes over relatively short period
of geologic time (such as between generations) and results in
diversification within species Change of allele frequencies of a
population Mutation, gene flow / migration, genetic drift and
natural selection BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and climate
change13 27.11.2014 Wikipedia; Bioninja
Slide 15
Macroevolution: speciation, extinction & relatedness BIO
232 Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change14 27.11.2014
Planet of the Apes. David Begun and John Gurche, Scientific
American, 16, 4-13 (2006) doi:
10.1038/scientificamerican0606-4sp
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Macroevolution: (convergent) trait evolution BIO 232
Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change15 27.11.2014
Nature education
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Macroecology and macroevolution BIO 232 Macroecology, niche
evolution and climate change16 27.11.2014 Spatial variation in
species-level lineage diversification rate Jetz, W.; Thomas, G. H.;
Joy, J. B.; Hartmann, K. & Mooers, A. O. (2012) The global
diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491, 44-448
Slide 18
Ecological processes: life-history strategies BIO 232
Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change17 27.11.2014
Nature Education
Slide 19
Ecological processes: species interactions InteractionSpecies
XSpecies Y Mutualism++ Commensalism+0 Predation+- Herbivory+-
Parasitism+- Amensalism0- Competition-- Neutralism00 Table 1:
Classic categories of direct effects in ecological communities The
sign (+, -, 0) represents the net effect of one species on the
other species, either positive, negative, or neutral. BIO 232
Macroecology, niche evolution and climate change18 27.11.2014
Nature Education
Slide 20
What is macroecology? In its early developments, macroecology
has been mainly descriptive and only more recently transforms to an
analytical explanatory science BIO 232 Macroecology, niche
evolution and climate change19 27.11.2014 Land plant of Britain
from Watson (1859) Description Explanation Local community filters
by Thuiller et al. (2013) BIO 232 focus
Slide 21
Literature Books: Brown JH 1995. Macroecology. Univ. Press,
Chicago. Gaston KJ, Blackburn TM 2000. Pattern and Process in
Macroecology. Blackwell Sci. Publ, Oxford. Blackburn TM, Gaston KJ
(eds) 2003. Macroecology: Concepts and Consequences. Blackwell
Scientific Publications, Oxford. Journals: Ecography Global Ecology
and Biogeography Ecology Letters Journal of Biogeography Diversity
and Distributions BIO 232 Macroecology, niche evolution and climate
change20 27.11.2014
