Hello Bruce,
Have a look at the literature on the early river entry phenomenon of
Late Run Sockeye of the Fraser River. See web page of Dr. Scott Hinch at
UBC, Vancouver Canada, for a slew of papers.
Michael
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Michael Cooperman, PhD
National Research Council - Research Fellow
in residence at NOAA-Fisheries, NE Fisheries Science Center - Maine Field
Station
Atlantic Salmon Research and Conservation Task
17 Godfrey DR., Suite 1
Orono, ME 04473
(work) 207-866-4166
(cell) 207-974-9846
(fax) 207-866-7342 (pls call before faxing)
email: [email protected]
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Bruce Robertson wrote:
I'm curious to know if anyone is aware of any potential ecological or
other evolutionary traps caused directly (e.g. climatic cues related
to migratory ecology, emergence, flowering time asychrony with
pollinators, etc) or indirectly (e.g. resultant species interactions)
by climate change. Climate change is predicted to alter the temporal
and spatial relationships between organisms (and organisms and their
abiotic environment) and should be predicted, then, to alter the
reliability of cues used by organisms to guide various behaviors. I
should say that something like earlier departure/arrival by migratory
birds may result in reduced fitness outcomes, but may not be a trap
unless there are other 'available' behavioral choices for the organism
to make. In this way, migratory departure may be a rather hardwired
behavior with little variability. It could be possible in this example
that regional variation in the degree of climate change could trigger
some local populations to migrate, while not others....this might
constitute a trap. Instead, such a case my simply represent organisms
experiencing evolutionary lag and 'making the best of bad situation'.
...aside from this rather hypothetical example, traps due to climate
change seem particularly likely and I'm surprised that I have not yet
read a paper on this topic....I'd love to hear from anybody with
either theoretical ideas, anecdotal evidence or research in progress
as I'm putting together a manuscript that would benefit from such ideas.
Best,
