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Looking to the past to predict the future: the evolution of biodiversity through climate change and the rise of human society (Palaeogenetics)
Date du début: 1 déc. 2013, Date de fin: 29 nov. 2016 PROJET  TERMINÉ 

Biodiversity loss and climate change are the most critical environmental threats today. In order to predict future changes and develop conservation strategies, we must understand the evolutionary and ecological processes underlying species response to global change. This project will improve our predictions of the future by looking to the past, using ancient DNA technology to track genetic change of six taxa with varying levels of human impact, habitat specialization, and sensitivity to climate over the last 45,000 years. Ancient DNA will be integrated with ecological-niche models in a novel statistical framework, enabling for the first time quantitative model evaluation, an understanding of the underlying climatic and human factors influencing species response, and improvement of future predictions. This project brings Dr. Chan’s analytical expertise developed in the US to Dr. Dalen’s ancient DNA datasets and ecological models, to advance European research excellence in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss.

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