Title of her presentation: "Mountains, climate and biodiversity: why geology is important for understanding biological patterns"

Geology and biology nowadays mostly form separate research communities. An important connection between the fields is biogeography, the study of animal and plant distribution through space and time. Although geology is crucial in biogeographic reconstructions, geologists play a marginal role in the development of the field. This is unjustified as an integrated approach could lead to more accurate reconstructions of present biological patterns. In particular, the advancement of molecular techniques and methods in estimating surface processes provide new opportunities for such integrated geo-biological research.

In this lecture Carina Hoorn will illustrate this point with examples from South America and Asia, and  will also introduce the book ‘Mountains, Climate and Biodiversity’ that is currently in press with Wiley’s. This book provides a platform for a multidisciplinary team of authors who discuss the current state of research at the interface between the geo- and biosphere, and address major questions while presenting examples from mountain systems around the world. Ultimately dr. Hoorn and her co-editors hope that this book will entice geologists and biologists to collaborate, and present new insights into how biodiversity in the world around us took shape.