Location

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Start Date

16-4-2011 10:00 AM

End Date

16-4-2011 11:30 AM

Description

Many montane species respond to climate change by shifting their range upslope as temperatures at lower elevations increase. An elevation range shift causes a range contraction that may result in a population bottleneck. Joseph Grinnell surveyed the fauna along the Yosemite transect from 1914 to 1920. In 2003 Craig Moritz and his colleagues began to resurvey the Yosemite transect to assess the faunal change during a century of climate change. The bushy-tailed woodrat suffered severe range contraction and population bottleneck between the two surveys. I will use evolutionary models to determine if the population has suffered a genetic bottleneck.

Keywords

Bushy-tailed wood rat – Effect of global warming on; California – Yosemite National Park Region; Climatic changes; Global warming; United States – Sierra Nevada; Wood rats; Zoogeography—Climatic factors

Disciplines

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment

Language

English

Comments

Support provided by NSF EPSCoR


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Apr 16th, 10:00 AM Apr 16th, 11:30 AM

Has recent climate change caused a genetic bottleneck in a Sierra Nevada population of the bushy-tailed woodrat?

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Many montane species respond to climate change by shifting their range upslope as temperatures at lower elevations increase. An elevation range shift causes a range contraction that may result in a population bottleneck. Joseph Grinnell surveyed the fauna along the Yosemite transect from 1914 to 1920. In 2003 Craig Moritz and his colleagues began to resurvey the Yosemite transect to assess the faunal change during a century of climate change. The bushy-tailed woodrat suffered severe range contraction and population bottleneck between the two surveys. I will use evolutionary models to determine if the population has suffered a genetic bottleneck.