Скачать или смотреть Seminar 21: Climate change, forest degradation and the future of Himalayan biodiversity

Speaker: Umesh Srinivasan
Abstract: Earth is currently undergoing its sixth ever mass extinction, driven primarily by anthropogenic climate change and habitat loss. The biodiversity of the Himalayas is at special risk because of a rate of warming thrice as fast as the global average coupled with rapid forest loss. To conserve the exceptional biodiversity of the Himalayas therefore requires an understanding of how species’ traits (e.g., physiology, behaviour) influence their responses to climate warming and forest loss and degradation (e.g., agriculture, logging). I use a combination of comparative data from the western and eastern Himalayas and long-term demographic data from an intensive study site in the eastern Himalayas to investigate three key research themes: (a) the role of temperature in structuring bird communities (and how species’ thermal niches influence their ability to cope with forest loss), (b) the impacts of selective logging on the survivorship of Himalayan birds, and (c) how synergies between climate change and forest degradation affect the viability of Himalayan bird populations. I will discuss results from these research projects as well as the implications of these results for conservation.

Biography: Umesh Srinivasan is an applied ecologist at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore India. His work deals primarily with understanding climate and land use change impacts on biodiversity. In addition, he partners with tribal communities in the Eastern Himalayas on conservation projects