Priyanga Amarasekare (UCLA): Predicting the effects of climate warming: from chemistry to evolution

Abstract
I want to make the argument that understanding life on earth requires developing theory that integrates across levels of information, from chemistry to evolution. I am going to focus on temperature variation and phenotypic plasticity, not least because temperature is integral to all life processes, and climate warming poses one of the greatest threats to life on earth. Predicting the effects of warming requires knowing whether organisms have sufficient plasticity to respond to current levels of warming, and whether plasticity can evolve fast enough to keep pace with warming. But, existing plasticity is the result of past evolution, while future plasticity is the result future evolution. My thesis is that chemistry is integral to both understanding past evolution and predicting future evolution. I will present theory and data to support this idea and discuss future research directions.

Zoom link: https://liu-se.zoom.us/j/63158449287

Past lectures are on the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoreticalEcologySeminarSeries

eventbrite link (for reminders): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/theoretical-ecology-seminar-series-tickets-119884512805