Adaptation to global change in Alberta’s mountain environment
Using the Columbian ground squirrel as a model animal species, we are examining organismal responses to patterns of global change. Because of demonstrated gene flow over the mountain environment, from alpine to foothill habitats in Alberta, the ground squirrels have evolved extreme phenotypic plasticity in their lifecycles. Thus, they are at the extreme favorable limit of flexibility to short-term changes in the physical environment that are occurring under climatic aspects of global change. In addition, the ground squirrels respond through their lifecycles to two critical climatic changes that are especially important in Alberta: the onset of spring and the intensity of midsummer warming and drying. These climatic elements exhibit increased fluctuations over the years, and our long-term studies permit testing of both basic and practical questions of animal reactions to climatic fluctuations.
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PI: Dr. F Stephen Dobson (Professor, Auburn University)
​Duration: 26 years ongoing (1992-present)
Collaborators: P Neuhaus (Univ Calgary), DW Coltman (U Alberta), VA Viblanc (IPHC-CNRS), JE Lane (Univ Saskatoon), etc.......
Adaptation to global change in Alberta’s mountain environment
Using the Columbian ground squirrel as a model animal species, we are examining organismal responses to patterns of global change. Because of demonstrated gene flow over the mountain environment, from alpine to foothill habitats in Alberta, the ground squirrels have evolved extreme phenotypic plasticity in their lifecycles. Thus, they are at the extreme favorable limit of flexibility to short-term changes in the physical environment that are occurring under climatic aspects of global change. In addition, the ground squirrels respond through their lifecycles to two critical climatic changes that are especially important in Alberta: the onset of spring and the intensity of midsummer warming and drying. These climatic elements exhibit increased fluctuations over the years, and our long-term studies permit testing of both basic and practical questions of animal reactions to climatic fluctuations.
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PI: Dr. F Stephen Dobson (Professor, Auburn University)
​Duration: 26 years ongoing (1992-present)
Collaborators: P Neuhaus (Univ Calgary), DW Coltman (U Alberta), VA Viblanc (IPHC-CNRS), JE Lane (Univ Saskatoon), etc.......
Mountain Mammal Research
Mountainous regions of high latitude are subject to rapid, drastic, environmental changes affecting biodiversity. Global climate change, habitat fragmentation and loss, human encroachment, domestic livestock grazing, and overharvesting, are part of the many pressures affecting the distribution, population dynamics and life cycle of endemic mountain species of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, fungi and other microorganisms.
Most endemic mountain species have evolved in unique environments where ecosystems change within very short distances due to altitudinal differences in microclimate. How those organisms may respond to rapid changes in the environment, whether they may be at risk, and whether conservation actions are needed, requires biological understanding on species ability to cope with environmental stress change through plasticity or microevolution
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Micro and macro vertebrate herbivores are at the heart of the food chain, and their different longevity and population dynamics provide important insights into adaptation to global change. There are a limited number of longitudinal studies on animals living in the mountain ecosystem that span many animal generations.
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Our team studies both micro (Columbian ground squirrels; Urocitellus columbianus) and macro (Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep; Ovis candadensis) herbivore species that have been continuously observed, marked and monitored these species for, respectively, 25 and 38 years, with continuous data reaching back into the early 1980’s.
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Our research questions span from ecosystem to molecular levels, providing invaluable knowledge on the general ecology, physiology and behaviour of these species, together with regional indices of changes in the environment (weather and precipitation maps, human disturbance, habitat fragmentation).
Main interests are the evolution of sociality, parasite and disease transmission and the importance of social networks for information transfer and individual associations. The more than 35 years of data are used to better understand adaptations to environmental changes. Besides the study of phenotypic and genotypic changes of the study species a strong focus is also put on the interactions of parasites and hosts due to climate change. This long-term dataset provides invaluable information that is continuously used to inform and provide data to AEP (AKA Fish and Wildlife). They use long-term data on reproductive success, survival and population dynamics and health. This has been and is done in close collaborations with Fish and Wildlife (e.g. Jon Jorgenson, Grant Chapman, Anne Hubbs) and with Alberta Parks (e.g. previously with Steve Donelon (now assistant deputy minister for Parks) & Melanie Percy (Ecologist team leader, Kananaskis), most recently with Nathan Brown (Conservation officer, Sheep River Provincial Park) and Joyce Gould (Science coordinator, Parks devision) to develop strategies to involve Parks in research all across Alberta.
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PI: Dr. Kathreen Ruckstuhl (Professor, University of Calgary)
​Duration: 38 years ongoing (1981-present)
Columbian ground squirrel research
Big Horn Sheep Research
Two themes run through recent ecological research on the responses of biota to global change. First is a renewed focus on responses to abiotic and biotic factors in the environment, responses that can be both plastic over short periods of time, and genetic over generations. The second is the realization that these two routes to flexibility to environmental changes interact, because phenotypic flexibility, or phenotypic plasticity, can evolve genetically as the environmental context for evolution changes. Our studies on ground squirrels are intimitaly tied to one another in seeking individual and population responses to global change in Alberta’s rapidly changing mountain ecosystem. We do this by using long-term data (an ongoing effort spanning more than 25 years), collected with comparable methods on 6 different field sites. We seek answers to questions about animal responses to global change in Alberta’s mountain environment. These responses range from the cellular through individual to population levels. While not typically the focus for wildlife management or conservation, ground squirrels afford a number of logistical benefits as a model system for research on animal responses to global change. In particular, they are abundant, easily caught and handled and sedentary. As a result, we are able to investigate the mechanistic basis to observed responses. This is critical, as current climate models project conditions to shift beyond historical regimes, a mechanistic approach enables predictions as to how wildlife will respond without having to rely on extrapolation necessary from correlative approaches. Lastly, our our high resolution pedigree data from fully censused populations over multiple generations allows us to examine evolutionary responses in addition to ecological.
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Research projects (click to find out more):
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Adaptation to global change in Alberta’s mountain environment
PI: Dr. F Stephen Dobson (Professor, Auburn Univ, AL, USA)
Duration: 27 years ongoing
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Evolution of life-history trade-offs in a changing world
PI: Dr. Peter Neuhaus (Professor, University of Calgary)
Duration: 25 years ongoing
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Environmental modulation of physiological stress and its evolutionary consequences
PI: Dr. Vincent A Viblanc (Chargé de Recherche, CNRS, France)
Duration: 18 years ongoing
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Columbian ground squirrels as a model wild mammal system for climate adaptation
PI: Dr. Jeffrey Lane (Professor, University of Saskatoon)
Duration: 12 years ongoing.
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