Question

How does biology (morphology, physiology, and life history) determine an organism's response to environmental change?

Approaches

  • Ecological forecasting and hindcasting
  • Mechanistic models of species' ranges in changing environments
  • Physiological, energetic, and ecological constraints on abundance, distribution, and diversity

Study systems: Sceloporus fence lizards across the US; Colias butterflies around Gothic, CO (photo above); and grasshopper communities around Boulder, CO (photo below).

News

  • 2 Jan 2012: Happy new year. The year will bring with it a flurry of meetings for Lauren. She's slated to speak in organized sessions at the Metabolic Ecology Gordon Conference, ESA, SICB, and the International Biogeography Society. See you there.
  • 21 Dec 2011: It's a good month for undergraduate research in our group. A paper asking whether including species-specific physiology can improve species distribution models for butterflies and stemming from the undergraduate research of Stephanie Waaser was just published in Ecology.
  • 6 Dec 2011: Our most interdisciplinary paper to date published showing that national park visitation seems to be shifting earlier in response to recent climate change! More here and from the NY Times, Freakonomics, The Atlantic, YAHOO News, and GOOD. The paper stems from the undergraduate research of Madison Foushee.
  • 3 Nov 2011: A paper written by an international NCEAS group including Lauren and UNC colleague John Bruno came out in Science today. It shows that marine life will need to move spatially and temporally as fast as life on land to keep up with climate change despite slower rates of ocean warming. We also show that organisms will not escape climate change by simply moving poleward and earlier. More from NSF, NY Times, and the Atlantic. See also the perspective.
  • 24 Oct 2011: The lab's butterfly research in collaboration with the Kingsolver lab is featured in the UNC undergraduate science magazine. Lots of other interesting research in the department is also feautured. Recent funding by NSF will allow us to continue our historical resurveys in both the lab and field!
  • News archive

Department of Biology and Curriculum in Ecology| University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Mailing address:411 Coker Hall; CB# 3280| Location: Wilson 342

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