ID: 613 / 87

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS AT THE REAR EDGE UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE

Abstract: Understanding the factors that shape species’ range limits is a central challenge in ecology and evolutionary research. Resolving this challenge is timely as the distributions of plant species are already disrupted by climate change. Rear-edge populations, located at the lower latitudinal or elevational range limits, are often remnants persisting in former glacial refugia. With their long history of persistence in warmer climates and their ancestral, often diverse gene pool, they may be the most likely source of adaptation to future warming conditions. At the same time, these populations are predicted to experience rates of high extinction, as ecologically marginal rear-edge habitats are expected to become unsuitably warm under climate change. Extinction risk associated with demographic decline may be exacerbated by high genetic drift resulting from population decline and long-term isolation at the rear edge. Recent studies have found variation in the response of rear-edge populations to climate change, calling for a better understanding of the ecological and evolutionary processes at play in this potentially heterogeneous region of the range. In this symposium, we will explore the population dynamics observed at the rear edge and their potential drivers. We will present recent advances in ecological and evolutionary research on warmer range limits and their relation to climate change. Finally, we propose to combine these to create an integrative framework to better predict future population dynamics at the rear edge.

Speaker 1: - Name: Amy L. Angert - Affiliation: Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia - Address: 6270 University Blvd Vancouver, B.C. V6T1Z4, Canada - Email: amy.angert@botany.ubc.ca - Title: Rapid evolution slows population decline but does not rescue rear-edge populations during extreme drought

Speaker 2: - Name: Albert Vilá-Cabrera - Affiliation: Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (CREAF) - Address : Campus de Bellaterra (UAB) Edifici C 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès Barcelona, Spain. - Email: a.vila@creaf.uab.cat - Title: Forest ecosystem dynamics at rear edges in a changing world

Speaker 3: - Name: Antoine Perrier - Affiliation: University of Virginia - Address : University of Virginia Department of Biology PO. Box 400328 Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA - Email: cdt9qe@virginia.edu - Title: Evolutionary history affects adaptation at the rear edge

Topics (Up to three): Global Change Ecology

Topic 2: Biogeography / Phylogeography

Topic 3: Population Genetics

Justification: Rear-edge populations have long been studied in Forestry due to the exposure of tree species’ rear edges to the negative effects of climate change. While the importance of rear edges has also been acknowledged in ecology and evolutionary research, our capacity to predict the persistence or extinction of these populations is limited by the lack of a framework integrating perspectives from other fields. We propose to include multiple disciplines within Plant Biology with a demographically diverse set of speakers representing the ecological and evolutionary perspectives necessary to create this framework and advance our understanding of rear-edge dynamics under climate change.