Faculty of Science

Modelling species distributions under climate change
Provider: Faculty of Science

Activity no.: 5925-16-12-31
	Enrollment deadline: 28/08/2016

Place

Natural History Museum of Denmark,

Date and time

28.08.2016, at: 00:00 - 02.09.2016, at: 16:00

Regular seats

ECTS credits

4.00

Enrolment Handling/Course Organiser

David Bravo Nogues E-mail address: dnogues@sund.ku.dk

Written language

English

Teaching language

English

Semester/Block

Summer

Scheme group

Not included in the scheme group

Scheme group note

Duration: 5 days in Copenhagen plus previous reading of 30 relevant papers Scheduled dates: 28th August to 2nd September 2016

Exam requirements

Ingen eksamen

Exam form

Course participation

Exam form

Course participation

Course workload

Course workload category	Hours
Preparation	60.00
Class Instruction	35.00
Study Groups	5.00

Sum	100.00

Content

Subject area: Ecology, evolution, global change biology, impacts of climate change

•Scientific content

Understanding species distributions is a core topic in ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation and global change biology and Species Distribution Models, SDMs, are a key tool for forecasting species distribution due to climate change. This PhD course will cover ecological and evolutionary theory on species distributions and species niches, methodological issues, training in SDM software, and applications of SDMs to a broad range of questions from global change to phylogeography and phylogenetics. The course will encompass lectures, computer practical and seminars based on paper discussions. The students will read, before attending, a compendium with original research papers representing landmark studies. Each student will be required to prepare for the course by reading a specified background literature (~30 papers).

The last five hours of the course will be devoted to report the results of the modeling exercises and to put them in the context of the theories and methods learnt during the course. This session will be organized as a scientific workshop in which students (after a formal presentation of their results using powerpoint and projector) will discuss about their findings with the other students and with the panel of teachers.

During the course all students are expected to participate in paper discussions and practical, and to attend to the lectures. Full attendance of the entire PhD course, preparation through background reading, and pro-active participation in seminars and practical are required to obtain the 4 ECTS.

Learning outcome

Students will gain knowledge on 1) theories and hypothesis that relates climate and distribution of species and how these relationship might change under future climate change; 2) formal knowledge about the main methodological and statistical approaches relating climate and the distribution of species; 3) specific cutting edge examples of applications of models of species distributions under climate change ranging from evolutionary biology to ecological disciplines; 4) medium user level of the software Biomod; 5) critical reading of the scientific literature as a result of the paper discussions in the seminars.

There are two parallel learning outcomes I hope students will learn:

A parallel learning outcome is diversity. I promote diversity of personal and scientific backgrounds, and a diversity of Phd topics among the attendees so the Phd students can be exposed to other related research fields that are asking similar questions about the relationships between climate and species.

A second parallel learning outcome is gender equality in academia. Three out of teachers in the course are females (ranging from Professor to Assistant Professor to post-doc). Mainly for female students I hope they find these female teachers a role model and an example that highlights that women can be highly successfully in academia.

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures and practical work.

Remarks

Academic Program
Monday (All the teachers attending)
09-10AM Introduction to the course: DNB
10-13PM Discussion of PhD students own projects I
14-16PM Discussion of PhD students own projects I
16-18PM Discussion of PhD students own projects I
18:15-onwards Ice-breaking reception

Tuesday
9-11AM Ecological and evolutionary theory on species niches and distributions (lecture): Nogués-Bravo
11-13PM Species Distribution Models, SDM, statistical theory and methods (lecture): Nogués-Bravo
14-16PM Phylogenetics, evolutionary biology and species distributions (lecture/seminar): Morlon
16-18PM Introduction to BIOMOD I (Raquel Garcia)

Wednesday
9-11PM Modelling species distributions (Biomod Practical): Raquel Garcia
11-13PM Mechanistic modelling (lecture/seminar): Saly Keith
14-16PM SDM applications to Phylogeography (lecture/seminar): Marske
16-19PM Modelling species distributions (BioMod practical): Raquel Garcia

Thursday
9-12AM Modelling species distributions (BioMod practical): Raquel Garcia
12-13AM Species distribution, genetics and population models I: Damien Fordham (lecture)
14-16PM Species distribution, genetics and population models II: Damien Fordham (lecture/seminar)
17-18PM Species distribution models applications to species extinctions (lecture): DNB

Friday
9-13PM Modelling species distributions (Biomod practical): Raquel Garcia
14-19 Workshop: reporting and discussion of the practical (evaluation). All the teachers

19:30 – Dinner and party with the students

Lecturers
Catherine Graham
Associate Professor
650 Life Sciences Building
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11789, USA

Raquel Garcia
National Museum of Natural History, Madrid, Spain

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