ENVS 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ecological Niche
6 Sep 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
ENVS 001
10/13/17
Guest Lecture- Professor Nate Sanders
Climate Change
➢ How does an ecologist study climate change?
o Climate varies systemically on the planet
o Climate (change) if related to diversity
o There are several ways to study the effects of climate (change) on biodiversity
➢ Ecological niches
o Summary of an organism’s tolerances and requirements
o Multiple dimensions of niches
▪ Ex. Temperature and precipitation conditions
o Decline in number of species the further the latitude increases
▪ Ex. Mammals, snakes, frogs, lizards, termites, trees
➢ How might biodiversity respond to a changing climate?
o Retrospective studies
▪ Looking at how things have changed in the past
• Ex. Trying to understand if we could pick up the signal of
changing climate change on biodiversity
o Field study in Taiwan
o Showing that habitat has not changed, the change is due to
climate
o Studying this through the different types of moths
▪ If climate has been changing, you would go to a higher elevation to where
the conditions for your ecological niche would go, usually shifting
northward
• Ex. Green Mountains, Mt. Abraham, the boreal forest and
hardwood tree species
o Phenological change
o Models
