Biodiversity Research Seminar Series (BRS)
BRS Scott Nordstrom: "Population growth in tough times: influences of evolution, life history, and phenology”
February 28, 2024, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Zoom webinar recording:
Passcode: w83DYx$u
host:
Title: "Population growth in tough times: influences of evolution, life history, and phenology”
Abstract: I'll talk about three projects related to population growth in challenging environments. Two are theoretical models of evolutionary rescue, the process of populations adapting to stressful environmental change to avoid extinction. One project incorporates simultaneous effects of negative density dependence and genetic erosion on population growth and adaptation following an environmental shift, demonstrating that populations in novel, challenging environments often face an extinction vortex. The other incorporates longevity and overlapping generations into models of rescue, challenging the often-posited hypothesis that longevity hinders rescue by slowing rates of adaptation. Finally, I'll talk about work here at UBC, where I am quantifying drought-induced changes in flowering time of a perennial herb on Vancouver Island, and asking the question: does flowering phenology actually impact population growth as much as people think it does?