A team of researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno has been studying the effects of climate w88 casino games login on the range movements of species, using a woodrat hybrid zone as a model system.
The w88 casino games login, including Professor Marjorie Matocq, Assistant Professor Kevin Shoemaker, and Postdoctoral Researcher Elizabeth Hunter, published a research paper, "Differential Effects of Climate on Survival Rates Drive Hybrid Zone Movement," online, Dec. 7, in the scientific journal Current Biology.
"This, at its very basis, is a long-term study to understand what factors influence the persistence of populations at w88 casino games login range edges and how they respond to changing conditions," Matocq, in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, said.
The findings of this study have allowed for a unique look into the mechanisms' underlying range movements of species and the complex relationship between w88 casino games login and inter-species competition in determining range limits. A range limit is a species geographic boundary beyond which it does not occur.
The question of how animals will respond to climate w88 casino games login is a major area of research in ecology, with clear implications for biodiversity conservation.
"When conditions w88 casino games login, one way that species may respond is by shifting their ranges to follow more favorable conditions," Matocq said. "For example, if it's getting too hot or dry, species might move higher in elevation, or further north, but we understand very little about that process."
The interactions that animals have with other species at their range margins may strongly influence species distributions, but such interactions are difficult to study and therefore present a major barrier to understanding how species respond to climate w88 casino games login.
Matocq's woodrat data provided a unique opportunity to study the demography of two species at their range margins and how their populations responded to factors related to both w88 casino games login and competition.
Strikingly, the researchers in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources uncovered a complex mechanism by which competition and w88 casino games login worked together to favor one woodrat species over another, resulting in intrusion of the favored species into territory previously dominated by the other species.
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"This research is a really novel contribution, as it documents a response to climate w88 casino games login that is mediated by species interactions, illustrating something many ecologists have long suspected: species interactions are a really important part of the equation," Matocq said.
"Our woodrat study is very good for this question because the two w88 casino games login hybridize," Hunter said. "So, when we're interested in studying w88 casino games login interactions, hybridizing w88 casino games login are very good for that because they are potentially the most competitively interacting w88 casino games login you can find."
There are many different ways that animals can interact with each other, such as competing with one another for food or territories, but in the case of this research, they can also share w88 casino games login genetic information.
Matocq began working on this study in 2008, but has been working with and collecting data on the woodrat w88 casino games login since 1996. Hunter and Shoemaker are population modelers, and started collaborating with Matocq in 2016.
"This was a nice collaboration to use the data that Marjorie had collected and our expertise in building models to predict how these different factors can affect population survival probabilities, and how interactions cause w88 casino games login ranges to shift," Hunter said.
"We had genetic data for all individuals, and we also had information for estimating demographic parameters over time, so we had a unique opportunity to link the genetics to demographic rates like survival," Shoemaker w88 casino games login. "It is a very unique opportunity."
The team expressed the importance of understanding the effects of climate w88 casino games login on biodiversity.
"Take the example of polar bears, where it's very easy to see how w88 casino games login could affect their populations, but we need to think beyond how hotter temperatures will affect polar bears directly," Hunter said. "They also interact with their prey species, and we need to understand how both of those populations are interacting in order to really know what is going to happen to polar bears."
The w88 casino games login is on the leading edge of coming up with ways to look at such interactions in order to make better predictions.
"It illustrates the importance of long-term datasets for addressing these major questions, and there are few examples of data sets that can do what we were able to do with this paper," Shoemaker said. "One of the things that we address in our paper is for the need for more data sets that can examine how species respond to climate w88 casino games login at a deeper level."
Shoemaker received his master's and doctorate degrees in conservation biology from the State w88 casino games login of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Hunter completed her master's degree in the same program. While there, she met Shoemaker, and the two developed an interest in doing these types of demographic models. Hunter obtained her doctorate degree at the w88 casino games login of Georgia.
Matocq received her bachelor's degree from California Polytechnic State w88 casino games login, San Luis Obispo, and received her master's degree from San Francisco State w88 casino games login. She completed her doctorate in 2000 at the w88 casino games login of California, Berkeley.
