High mountain biodiversity under climate change: progress, challenges, and promise by Dr. Scott Hotaling

Abstract: Climate change is dramatically altering mountain ecosystems worldwide. In high-elevation regions, perhaps the most consequential change is the rapid recession of glaciers and perennial snowfields. How a changing cryosphere will impact biodiversity, particularly in glacier and meltwater-driven habitats, is poorly known. In this seminar, I will integrate community ecology, ecophysiology, and molecular tools to give a broad overview of the existing biodiversity in high mountain habitats, its potential fate under climate change, and the evidence for in situ refugia to buffer these changes.

Bio:  Scott Hotaling is currently a postdoc in the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University but in Summer 2022, he’ll be starting a new lab at Utah State University in the Dept. of Watershed Sciences. He received a PhD in 2017 from the University of Kentucky (Advisor: David Weisrock) and has a BS from North Carolina State University (2011). In 2015, he co-founded the Teton Alpine Stream Research project which is dedicated to using long-term ecological monitoring to quantify how mountain aquatic ecosystems are changing. He is also a big fan of Twitter (@MtnScience).

TO JOIN BY ZOOM:

From a computer: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/5409618610

Or iPhone one-tap :

US: +16465588656,,5409618610# 

Or Telephone:

Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): 

US: +1 646 558 8656 

Meeting ID: 540 961 8610

International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/MNl8z