Assessing the vulnerability of subterranean biodiversity to climate change from an experimental perspective

Thursday 10 Oct 2024, 11:00 → 12:30 Europe/Rome

                                             

                                                                                                                                                         

                                           Seminari IRSA-2024

 

Assessing the vulnerability of subterranean biodiversity to climate change from an experimental perspective

 

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Dr. SUSANA PALLARÉS

Dept. of Ecology and Hydrology, University of Murcia, Spagna

http://www.um.es/ecoaqua 

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Research into the impacts of climate change on subterranean biodiversity has revealed profound effects occurring at gene to community levels. However, our knowledge of how subterranean organisms, often constrained by a reduced capacity for dispersal or microhabitat selection, cope with environmental variation, remains incomplete. Experimental approaches exploring relevant physiological traits for coping with environmental stress in subterranean ecosystems can fill this knowledge gap and provide more realistic predictions of species’ responses to climate change than traditional approaches, such as correlative species distribution models.

I will give an overview of recent advances in climate change research on subterranean fauna with a focus on experimental studies. Early thermal tolerance studies revealed that specialization to the climatically stable deep subterranean environment led to reduced physiological capacity and plasticity to withstand thermal variability. Research in this area further underscores the importance of thermal variability in shaping heat tolerance in subterranean lineages. I will also discuss future research directions aimed at refining climate sensitivity estimates for subterranean fauna through complementary approaches. For example, exploring thermally sensitive molecular processes may help identify early signs of sublethal stress. Additionally, considering other limiting factors in subterranean environments, which potentially interact with temperature, could offer a more ecologically relevant understanding of physiological sensitivity. Ongoing work in my research team is directed towards estimating rates of evolutionary change in thermal tolerance to predict the potential for evolutionary rescue under rapid climate change.

The unique nature of the subterranean environment provides opportunities to advance conservation physiology and integrating physiological knowledge into vulnerability assessments to better protect subterranean biodiversity amidst the challenges posed by global change.

 

I partecipanti registrati riceveranno un link personale per connettersi mediante la piattaforma Teams.

 

 

INFORMATIVA PRIVACY.pdf

Pallares_10 Ottobre 2024.pdf

11:00 → 12:30 Assessing the vulnerability of subterranean biodiversity to climate change from an experimental perspective