PETER BRETTON PEARMAN

Knowledge area

Botany

Department

Plant Biology and Ecology

Centre

Faculty of Science and Technology

Electronic mail

peter.pearman@ehu.eus

My work in evolutionary ecology addresses effects of climate change on animals and plants. I model how changing environment will affect the distribution and genetic composition of species, thus influencing the potential for species persistence. This entails understanding evolutionary adaptation to environment, and the geographic distribution of variation that confers adaptation. I combine genetic and ecological data on expressed environmental tolerances of species to illustrate evolutionary and demographic history. Models I use to predict the potential responses of species distributions to climate change can be improved by incorporating genetic data that reflect intraspecific adaptive differences. Further, I want to understand how species have responded to past changes in climate to provide an historical perspective on climate change impacts. I have done this by developing models of species tolerances and combining them with estimates of ancient climates. We can further understand the climate impacts on species by examining differences among species using phylogenetic comparative analysis. This provides perspective on how diversification of evolutionary lineages involves changes in environmental tolerances and geographic distributions. Evolutionary analyses of this kind illustrate the characteristics of lineages that successfully occupied particular environments, and may suggest the adaptive potential of species as they face future climate change.

• Curriculum Vitae