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Climate change impacts on species interactions

Globally, temperatures are rising in response to increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This increase in temperature, combined with other projected climatic changes, including shifts in precipitation regimes, is projected to induce a significant redistribution of the planet’s flora and fauna. I am interested in how patterns of faunal redistribution will be impacted by behavioral and trophic interactions between species. Climate-driven range shifts have the potential to create novel interactions between faunal species (e.g. competitive interactions and predator-prey interactions between species that historically have not overlapped in distribution).  These interactions could strongly shape the structure and function of ecological communities over the next 50-100 years, as wildlife species respond to changes in climate.

In collaboration with Dr. Oswald Schmitz, Dr. Eric Post, and Kevin Johnston, I used a modeling approach to address these issues for North American fauna. These models, in concert with growing empirical evidence, indicate that novel species interactions will be pervasive, as ranges shift in response to climate change, and that this has the potential to amplify the impacts of global climate change on ecosystems.

Relevant publications:

Burns, C.E., K.M. Johnston, and O.J. Schmitz.  2003. Global climate change and mammalian species diversity in US National Parks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 100(20):  11474-77.

Schmitz, O.J., E. Post, C.E. Burns, and K.M.  Johnston. 2003. Ecosystem responses to global climate change: Moving beyond color-mapping.  BioScience. 53(12): 1199-1205.