Remembering the Ancestors in a Changing World: The Past, Present, and Future of Wildlife Populations

First Mondays Series

Mark Jordan, assistant professor of biology

November 5, 2012
Noon - 1:15 p.m.
Science Building, Room 168

Animal populations face significant challenges in coping with the relatively rapid changes that have occurred in human dominated landscapes. In our region habitats are isolated by roads and fields, and the patches that remain are often made inhospitable by human activity. While these patterns are readily observable, a possibly more dramatic change in the landscape occurred when glaciers retreated several thousand years ago to leave new terrain and watersheds for animals to discover. Using analyses of DNA from local amphibians and fishes, this presentation investigates the impact of landscape change at these different scales and its role in shaping the future viability of populations.