Lauren Buckley Lecture

On Friday September 2 I attended a lecture by Lauren Buckley at the University of Tennessee. Lauren Buckley obtained her PH.D. at Stanford University and is currently an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her current research focuses on how the biology of an organism determines an organism’s response to environmental change. She thinks of herself as an ecological forecaster and combines theory, field and lab work, and Eco informatics to help predict how climate change will affect organisms. Buckley’s research focuses specifically on butterflies and fence lizards. Her research process begins by looking at environmental conditions around each animal. She then looks at the individual energetics of each animal. Finally she studies population dynamics. This process can be displayed in this sample mechanistic range model. First, look at the areas environmental temperature. Then, examine the operative environmental temperature for the organism. Next, examine the organisms activity time. Finally, translate these findings into the fecundity of the organism. She then inputs her data from the mechanistic model into a correlative model to form a more accurate hybrid model. Next she combines this hybrid model with species specific information to form an even more accurate model. Her research from the hybrid models has led her to conclude that biological traits do matter when determining how organisms will react to climate change and that each species has an individualized pattern of response to climate change. Her research has allowed her to find that the fence lizard will start migrating north due to climate change.  Also, her research has found that with increased climate change butterflies will have increased flight time which will allow more eggs to be laid, however in extreme temperatures eggs are not as fertile.