Seminar announcement

April 10, 2009 14:40-16:30 room 3-101 Bldg 3, Env. Information Sci. Yokohama National University

1. Biological Invasions, Trophic Interactions, and Phenological Shifts with Global Change
by Jenica M. Allen（Doctoral Student, University of Connecticut,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Global change is a multi-faceted phenomenon that includes biological introductions, climate change, and land use change. The implications of global change on ecological communities and ultimately ecosystems are the result of a combination of factors, thus synthetic approaches that incorporate many driving aspects are useful for understanding current patterns and forecasting future scenarios.
2. The effects of climate change on plants and animals in the US and Japan.
by Libby Ellwood (Doctoral Student　Boston University)
Bird species have served as effective model organisms to study the impacts of climate change. This research utilizes several types of data in order to address issues surrounding migration phenology and it's subsequent impact on bird populations. First, I will describe an analysis of bird arrivals to Concord, Massachusetts, USA over a 157-year time span, compiling the longest known record of bird arrival dates in North America. Specifically, I examine whether birds are shifting their arrival times in response to a climate thatis warming due to both local and global effects. I used records of bird arrivals by American philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau for 1851-54, and those of other ornithologists for the years that follow. In general, bird arrival times proved to be less responsive to temperature than plant flowering times. This analysis sheds light on some aspects of migrations in a changing landscape; however, other data are better suited for further investigations.Recently, substantial land use changes have also occurred and many bird populations have declined in population size, as seen in records of bird banding. I will describe an analysis of 39 years of such data, which includes first, mean and last arrival of migratory bird species to Manomet, Massachusetts. Initial analyses of these data examine how arrival dates have changed over time and relative to temperature. I am now expanding this investigation to test if evolutionary relatedness helps to further explain variation seen in arrival dates. A phylogenetic analysis will be done utilizing these migration data in combination with mitochondrial DNA sequences, natural history traits, and morphological traits. Phylogenetic analysis provides further explanatory value to patterns seen in arrival dates and future analysis will elucidate relationships among species,especially changes in cohort size, based on migratory behavior.Lastly, I will briefly introduce the work that I have begun using data from the Japanese Meteorological Agency to assess changes in the phenologies of plants and animals. This research seeks to determine if species are changing their phenologies and how these changes may affect the success of individual species as well as interactions across trophic levels.