Workshop: Trait-based ecology, climate change research and conservation: an environmental space perspective

Ever since Aristotle suggested that the distributions of organisms were influenced by environmental factors and Humboldt travelled the world observing dramatic differences in species richness depending on climate, scientists have been keenly aware that climate strongly influences the distribution and persistence of species on earth. With on-going climate change, understanding the relationship between species and climate has taken on a new urgency. Given its importance, researchers have started to focus specifically on climate and to study biodiversity directly in climate space. Formally defined, climate space is a state space of climate conditions where biodiversity patterns and processes can be studied. This state space is built from climate conditions from the study region of interest from global to regional, with the reciprocal relationship between species geographic distribution and its climatic niche being known as Hutchinson’s duality. 

Recent dramatic increase in the number and types of traits measured across different taxonomic groups provides new opportunities for trait-based ecology whose goal is to better understand the mechanisms influencing species-climate relationships. For instance, climate filtering (where a species requires a certain trait(s) – i.e., freezing tolerance - to occur in a given climate) is a commonly proposed mechanism behind trait distribution patterns. We can explore climate filtering by evaluating trait distributions in given climate bins. Such climate filtering also provides insight for climate change research. By identifying which traits and ecological functions are selected or excluded under particular climatic conditions, we can identify the attributes that may enable species to persist or decline as conditions shift. In addition, we can focus on specific climate bins that have high species richness, or endemism or unique traits and, by mapping these bins back into geography, we can track how the geographic area and connectivity of climate bins may change in the future. Knowing how climate bins change in area and connectivity might inform conservation prioritization. For example, recent work demonstrated that an abrupt and rapid increase of extinction risk could be strongly driven by climate area per se, rather than more complicated biological processes.

We offer up to 5 slots for WSL and EAWAG researchers (early-career scientists included) working or interested on the topic or related ones. Participants should be interested in brainstorming and discussing the possibilities and limitations of the environmental space approach to conservation, climate change research and trait-based ecology. All disciplines under the umbrella of biodiversity are welcome, from soil, plant, and interaction ecology. If you are interested in actively participating on the workshop, please contact Nadia Castro (nadia.castro(at)wsl.ch) with a brief explanation (up to one page) of why you would like to join.