Dr. Karen Hodges, Associate Biology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan

The geographic ranges of species are seldom static, but the causes for the edges of ranges are often unclear. Many conservation laws and policies are structured in ways that protect range edge populations, especially if the range periphery occurs in one jurisdiction, but the main range is elsewhere (as occurs in BC’s sage-steppe habitats in the Okanagan and the Vancouver Island garry oak ecosystems). Simultaneously, as global warming continues, many northern peripheral populations are acting as leading edges of range expansion. In this talk, I examine whether we have sufficient biological understanding of range edge populations, and the causes of range edges, to be able to predict which peripheral populations are genuinely valuable enough to warrant separate conservation attention or to predict which range edge populations might expand or contract. In so doing, I examine some conservation policy and data gaps, and I derive a possible classification of range edge types.

To participate remotely on Livestream or Elluminate: http://www.unbc.ca/nres/nresi_webcast.html