Dear colleagues from the Geo.X network,
We would like to cordially invite you to join us and external guests in a small three-day research workshop on "The imprint of deep time climate variability in modern biodiversity patterns” from 20-22 March 2024 funded by Geo.X and hosted at PIK, see the workshop summary below.
Please register your interest in participating here until 6 March 2024 latest: https://eveeno.com/geox_03-2024
Please also note that we can host only a limited number of participants. On the registration page we therefore kindly ask you to provide us with a few sentences on why you are interested in participating and how your expertise contributes to the aims of the workshop. Many thanks!
Damaris Zurell (University of Potsdam), Georg Feulner (PIK Potsdam), Johannes Müller (MfN Berlin)
Workshop summary:
Spatial biodiversity patterns result from complex eco-evolutionary feedbacks with the environment like continental movements, upfolding of mountain chains, and accompanying climatic variations. Several studies have emphasised the importance of geological dynamics for explaining current-day biodiversity hotspots and major biogeographic regions. While these studies have greatly contributed to our main understanding of speciation and environmental filtering, several outstanding questions remain. First, it is rarely considered how geological and paleoclimatic conditions have affected entire ecosystems and food webs but most studies focus on single trophic levels. Second, paleoclimatic variations are rarely considered as paleo reconstructions or scenarios are only available at very coarse temporal resolutions with time steps >100 ky. This obscures any major climatic fluctuations during those periods of time, e.g. through volcanic activities that could lead to temporary cooling effects with potentially large effects on potential ecosystem structure. Here, we want to bring together a group of paleoclimate and paleoecology experts with ecosystem and biodiversity modellers to identify a road map for researching the role of paleoclimatic variations on biodiversity dynamics and cascading effects on ecosystem structure. This road map could be published as a perspective paper and form the basis of a collaborative funding proposal. This knowledge will improve our understanding of current-day biodiversity patterns and potential future effects of climate on Earth’s biodiversity.
