GLOBES Research Summary
Derrick Parker
Email: dparker3@nd.edu
Department: Biological Sciences
Advisor: Jessica Hellmann
Human-caused climate change is expected to dramatically affect the geographic distribution of species, and most ecologists predict that species ranges will shift higher in latitude and elevations to counter systematic warming. Large-scale range shifts already have been documented in a diversity of species (Parmesan and Yohe 2003) despite only a 0.6 C rise in global temperatures in the last century. Not all species are responding identically to climate change, however (Parmesan and Yohe 2003; Voigt et al. 2003), and differences in biological responses likely arise from differences in the ecology and evolution of species. Ideally, we can use these differences to predict how biodiversity will react to climate change. Predicting biodiversity responses is key to mitigating negative effects of climate change and helping biodiversity tolerate to climate change (Voigt et al. 2003).
An unorthodox tool in the toolbox that may help biodiversity undergo climate change is called “assisted migration,” the purposeful movement of species by humans to regions where they did not historically occur but are predicted to tolerate in the future (McLachlan et al. 2007). This purposeful introduction of non-native species may have social, ecological and evolutionary consequences for natural systems and human welfare, and research is needed to guide the development of policy surrounding assisted migration.
My research aims to understand the role that climate change plays in limiting the distribution of species, the possibility that species could colonize regions outside their historic distribution, and the potential effectiveness of assisted migration as a management tool. I am pursuing these aims in a model study system involving butterflies living in a threatened ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest.
From butterflies, we can generalize to other species that are strongly affected by climate and have relatively fast generation time, particularly other insect species. Understanding the response of insects to climate change is vitally important as they represent a tremendous fraction of biodiversity and perform many of the essential functions of natural ecosystems (Miller 1993).
My study system is the oak-meadow ecosystem spans a broad latitudinal range from coastal British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, Mexico. This system is an ideal natural laboratory for studying the biological responses to climate change. Near the northern limit of this ecosystem on Vancouver Island, BC, urban development has reduced the spatial extent of oak ecosystems to less than 5% original of its original coverage. As a result, more than 100 species associated with the oak ecosystem have been designated “at risk” in British Columbia (GOERT 2003). Precipitation and temperature appear to play an important role in setting the range boundary of oak ecosystems, and anthropogenic climate change, coupled with habitat loss, fire suppression, and invasive species, will modify this ecosystem in important ways.
I study two, tractable butterfly species that occupy the oak ecosystem and share a common range edge, Specifically, my project investigates climate as a factor affecting range expansion in the Propertius duskywing, Erynnis propertius, and the Anise swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon. These species differ in their life-history, host-plant usage, and dispersal capability so that contrasts between the species suggest the role of species characteristics in the responses of biodiversity to climate change. In field and greenhouse experiments I am capturing larvae from populations in the core and periphery of the species’ range and rearing them under conditions that simulate the climate northward of their current range boundary. In these experiments, I measure several fitness metrics affected by climate. These experiments examine the potential for colonization beyond the species’ historical range, whether those changes occur naturally (due to organismal dispersal) or through assisted migration.
Miller, J. C. 1993. Insect natural-history, multispecies interactions and biodiversity in ecosystems. Biodiversity and Conservation 3: 233-241.
McLachlan, J. S., J. J. Hellmann, and M.W. Schwartz. 2007. A framework for debate of assisted migration in an era of climate change. Conserv. Biol. 2: 297–302.
Parmesan, C., and G. Yohe. 2003. A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature 421: 37-42.
Voigt, W., J. Perner, A.J. Davis, T. Eggers, J. Schumacher, R. Bahrmann, B. Fabian, W. Heinrich, G. Kohler, D. Lichter, R. Marstaller, and F.W. Sander. 2003. Trophic levels are differentially sensitive to climate. Ecology 84: 2444–2453.
Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team. 2003. Species at Risk in Garry Oak and Associated Ecosystems in British Columbia. Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team, Victoria, British Columbia.
Research Publications and Presentations
Pelini, S., K. Prior, D. Parker, J. Dzurisin, R. Lindroth, and J. Hellmann. 2009. Climate change and temporal and spatial mismatches in insect communities. In Climate Change. Letcher, T. M., ed. Elsevier, Oxford, UK. In press.