What do we mean by ‘extreme ecological events’? What’s more important to a population, more frequent extremes or changes to average conditions? How should we link the performance of individuals to the success or failure of entire populations?
On this episode, we talk with Mark Denny, Stanford University professor of marine science and former director of the Hopkins Marine Station. In his 2019 paper, “Performance in a variable world,” Mark reviewed how organisms perform in highly variable environments -- a problem that has taken on new urgency as climates change. We also talk about extreme ecological events -- what they are, why they occur, and how they affect organisms. Often, extreme conditions arise from unusual combinations of otherwise normal patterns of variation in multiple underlying factors. Predicting the effects of climate extremes therefore requires holistic approaches to monitoring environments coupled with an integrative understanding of animal physiology and behavior.
This episode of Big Biology is sponsored by the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. Founded in 1892, Hopkins Marine Station is the oldest marine laboratory on America’s west coast conducting research that addresses fundamental questions at every level of marine biology, from genes to ecosystems.
Cover art: Keating Shahmehri
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bigbiology/supportBig Biology Year End Wrap-Up
Food for thought: Plant domestication and the promise of green super rice (Ep 74)
A gene’s-eye view: Useful tool or narrow lens? (Ep 73)
Stability and change: Lessons from the Serengeti (Ep 72)
Please don't kill the bats! (Ep 5 Re-release)
A tattoo on the brain: The neurobiology of Alzheimer's disease (Ep 71)
The virus and the vegan: How the brain gains inference (Ep 70)
Butterfl-eyes: The evolution and function of insect vision (Ep 69)
Season 4 Preview (and more)
Foiling the flashy: How artificial light dims insect behavior (Ep 67)
Old vaccines for new pandemics (Ep 66)
Mouse on a hill: The structure and function of agency (Ep 65)
The stall protocol: Diapause in the annual killifish (Ep 64)
Survival of the systems: The power of persistence (Ep 63)
Situated Darwinism: Organism-centered evolution (Ep 62)
Decoding CRISPR: Jennifer Doudna and the future of gene editing (Ep 61)
Human-assisted evolution: Conserving coral diversity (Ep 60)
Feel the burn: The limits of human energy expenditure and endurance (Ep 59)
Finding our voice: The neurobiology of vocal learning (Ep 58)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
DNA Today: A Genetics Podcast
Short Wave
Unexplainable
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
Raising Health