Speaker

Ralf Ohlemüller (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Abstract

One way for species to respond to changing climatic conditions is to move. This can happen directly through locomotion or indirectly through increased propagule survivorship in formally climatically unsuitable but now suitable areas. There is an explicit link between temporal and spatial processes of climate change. This seminar will unpack existing concepts of climate velocity, analogues, refugia, nuclei, and source and sink climates. It will highlight the idea of climate change as a spatial process and how the spatial manifestations of temporal changes in climate have relevance for the natural environment. Examples from paleoecology and invasion biogeography will illustrate applications of these concepts for better understanding of spatial species-environment relationships.