Biogeography, Changing Climates and Niche Evolution
David Wake, Elizabeth Hadly and David Ackerly
December 11-13, 2008
Irvine, CA
Meeting Overview:
The meeting examined what lies ahead in evolutionary studies of the nature of niches of organisms in space and time one century after Joseph Grinnell laid out a vision for studying the distributions of organisms in a changing world. The two day meeting addressed the questions of how we can use new tools and methodologies, newly generated robust phylogenies, rapidly growing databases in biodiversity informatics, evidence of the impact of changing environments, and evolving perspectives on niches to predict future patterns of distribution and even evolution from the perspectives of ecology, paleontology, phylogenetics, and biodiversity informatics dealing with microbes, plants and animals and organized under four major topics:
- Organisms, Geography, Climate and Evolution: Homage to Joseph Grinnell
- The Distribution of Organisms and their Niches
- Niche Evolution and Changing Environments
- Climate Change and its Prospects
Video Available
Distinctive Voices public lecture
Back to Life: How Monterey Bay was Restored to Health
Steve Palumbi, Stanford University
Session 1: Organisms, Geography, Climate and Evolution: Homage to Joseph Grinnell
Opening Remarks and Session Chair, David Wake
The Grinnellian niche: species distribution in space and time
Craig Moritz, University of California at Berkeley
Grinnell's niche concept and its impact
Jorge Soberon, University of Kansas
Hutchinson's duality: the once and future niche
Robert Colwell, University of Connecticut & Thiago Rangel, University of Connecticut
Niches, body sizes, and the disassembly of island mammal faunas
James Brown, University of New Mexico
Session 2: The Distribution of Organisms and Their Niches
Session Chair, Elizabeth Hadly
Niches, landscapes, and global change
John A. Wiens, PRBO conservation Science
Steps towards a conceptual framework for understanding niche conservatism and evolution: theoretical explorations
Robert Holt, University of Florida
Biophysical ecology of the niche through space and time: mechanistic species distribution modeling
Warren Porter, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Niche Evolution, coexistence and the assembly of regional biota
David Ackerly, University of California at Berkeley
Keynote Speaker
The Future of Our Oceans
Steven Palumbi, Stanford University
Session 3: Niche Evolution and Changing Environments
Session Chair, David Ackerly
Niche conservation above the species-level
Elizabeth Hadly, Stanford University
Environmental texture through time and its ecological consequences
Stephen T. Jackson, University of Wyoming
Species facing range limits
Amy Angert, Colorado State University
Retrospective niche modeling, historical stability and phylogenetic reconstruction
David Vieites, University of California at Berkeley
Session 4: Climate Change and its Prospects
Session Chair, Elizabeth Hadly
Variation in niches through space and time: a community perspective
Catherine Graham, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Forecasting biodiversity and ecosystem changes
Niklaus E. Zimmerman, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Biotic response to recent rapid climate change
W. E. Bradshaw, University of Oregon
Niche breadth and sensitivity to climate change
Steve Williams, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
Closing Remarks, David Wake, University of California, Berkeley