Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events: Challenges and directions

van de Pol, Martijn, Jenouvrier, Stéphanie, Cornelissen, Johannes H.C., and Visser, Marcel E. (2017) Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events: Challenges and directions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 372 (1723). 20160134.

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View at Publisher Website: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0134
 
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Abstract

More extreme climatic events (ECEs) are among the most prominent consequences of climate change. Despite a long-standing recognition of the importance of ECEs by paleo-ecologists and macro-evolutionary biologists, ECEs have only recently received a strong interest in the wider ecological and evolutionary community. However, as with many rapidly expanding fields, it lacks structure and cohesiveness, which strongly limits scientific progress. Furthermore, due to the descriptive and anecdotal nature of many ECE studies it is still unclear what the most relevant questions and long-term consequences are of ECEs. To improve synthesis, we first discuss ways to define ECEs that facilitate comparison among studies. We then argue that biologists should adhere to more rigorous attribution and mechanistic methods to assess ECE impacts. Subsequently, we discuss conceptual and methodological links with climatology and disturbance-, tipping point- and paleo-ecology. These research fields have close linkages with ECE research, but differ in the identity and/or the relative severity of environmental factors. Bysummarizing the contributionsto this theme issue we draw parallels between behavioural, ecological and evolutionary ECE studies, and suggest that an over-arching challenge is that most empirical and theoretical evidence points towards responses being highly idiosyncratic, and thus predictability being low. Finally, we suggest a roadmap based on the proposition that an increased focus on the mechanisms behind the biological response function will be crucial for increased understanding and predictability of the impacts of ECE. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events’.

Item ID: 69637
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1471-2970
Keywords: Attribution, Biological response function, Climate variability, Definition, Idiosyncratic responses, Mechanism
Copyright Information: Published Version: © 2017 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Accepted Version may be made open access in an Institutional Repository without embargo.
Funders: Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants: ARC FT12010020
Date Deposited: 18 Oct 2021 01:20
FoR Codes: 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3104 Evolutionary biology > 310406 Evolutionary impacts of climate change @ 50%
41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4101 Climate change impacts and adaptation > 410102 Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation @ 50%
SEO Codes: 19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1905 Understanding climate change > 190502 Climate variability (excl. social impacts) @ 50%
19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1901 Adaptation to climate change > 190102 Ecosystem adaptation to climate change @ 50%
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