Full project title funded under Australian Research Council
Discovery grant scheme:
Understanding responses to climate change: a
mechanistic approach integrating functional genetics, physiology and
biophysical models for the Common brown butterfly
Participants:
Paul Sunnucks & Melanie Norgate (Monash U), Michael Kearney (U Melbourne), Neil Murray (La Trobe U), Warren Porter (U Wisconsin)
Hons students: Natalie
Briscoe (Melbourne U)
PhD students: Tara Bramwell (Monash U), Anna Lister (La Trobe U)
Climate change
and habitat fragmentation are together a major threat to the
continued survival of a vast number of species. Correlative
bioclimatic models are often used for predicting future suitable
habitats, but currently do not take into account whether species are
able to colonise new regions, nor the mechanisms by which they
interact with and adapt to their environment. We will use a
butterfly model species to investigate the relationship between
genetic polymorphisms, physiological capacity for dispersal, and
environmental constraints at the landscape scale. This will allow
truly mechanistic and more accurate predictions of how novel
climatic environments will affect species distributions. The
findings will be directly applicable to other butterflies: 26
threatened taxa in Australia.
