How is biodiversity affected by environmental challenges? Describing the evolutionary ecology of organisms from local to global scales, this course provides an overview of processes that shape the origin, expansion and extinction of species in space and time. Through series of lectures and personal work, it compares the biodiversity and biogeography of varied ecosystems such as drought-related deserts, long-populated Mediterranean regions and alpine ranges in order to organize main drivers of variation in a coherent framework. Such an integrated approach to species responses to environmental changes is key to interpret the current distribution of biodiversity and to appraise and manage future challenges.
Beyond advanced concepts in the field interactively exposed by teachers, students (in groups) will have to present and discuss a research paper to their peers. A successful presentation gives a bonus that will be added to individual grades from the subsequent written exam.
- Teacher: Christian Parisod
- Non-editing teacher: Vaibhav Mallya