Biodiversity & Climate Change – 42748 / 42749- ENST 141 – 01 / 02
Professor: Angela van Doorn
This 7-week course will focus on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. Past climate shifts can give us some insight as to what to expect with our current warming climate. Terrestrial and aquatic species respond to climatic changes by elevational, depth, and latitudinal shifts in their ranges. What is different about this warming period is both the pace of changes as well as pressures facing biodiversity from other human threats such as habitat destruction and overexploitation. According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, climate change is likely to become one of the most significant drivers of biodiversity loss by the end of the century. This course will examine how biodiversity is responding to climate change. In doing so, we will build upon current scientific understanding of evolution and ecology and explore conservation and management strategies that maintain and restore biodiversity. Students will also develop practical skills analyzing data and communicating science. This course is part of the Core Pathway on Climate Change, in which students pair together two 1.5-credit, 7-week courses and enroll in two modules during the semester. Visit: www.corepathways.georgetown.edu.
