Reconstructing Pleistocene Range Shifts in North American Ectothermic Vertebrates

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

Shaffer 0213155 One of the most important goals in environmental biology is understanding how changing, variable climates effect the distribution of plants and animals. In the U.S., it is known that the end of the last major glaciation about 20,000 years ago was a period of extreme climate change, with mile-thick ice sheets extending south of Chicago and New York City. It is suspected that these ice sheets had other climatological effects, including a period of extreme dryness that extended over much of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Research is proposed that seeks to understand the effects of this drying period by sampling the DNA of multiple vertebrate species with different ecological tolerances, and analyzing them for characteristic patterns of variation that are associated with range contraction followed by range expansion. Thus, the animals that currently live in the Great Plains will provide information, via their DNA, how climatological events affected them 20,000 years ago. This work will be conducted on National Wildlife Refuges and Long Term Ecological Research sites, employing and training local high school and college students from across the country. This research will allow us to better understand why some parts of our country have very high species diversity while others are low, as well as how future climate changes will affect patterns of animal diversity.