Studying diversity in a messy reality:
genes and species, ecology and adaptation, history and landscapes
Honor Prentice
dept. Plant Ecology and Systematics, Lund University, Sweden
Grassland ecosystems are beautiful, complex and extremely challenging to study. The structure of genetic variation within and between populations and its relationships with stochastic and adaptive processes on different spatial and temporal scales; the relationships between species richness and environmental, stochastic, historical and spatial processes; the relationships between genetic variation and plant community composition – how does everything fit together? Does it all fit together? I suggest that conservation biology in general, and conservation genetics in particular, should pay more attention to the possibility of local adaptation. And that studies of associations between biodiversity and environmental or historical variables need to include simultaneous analysis of a range of variables.
genes and species, ecology and adaptation, history and landscapes
Honor Prentice
dept. Plant Ecology and Systematics, Lund University, Sweden
Grassland ecosystems are beautiful, complex and extremely challenging to study. The structure of genetic variation within and between populations and its relationships with stochastic and adaptive processes on different spatial and temporal scales; the relationships between species richness and environmental, stochastic, historical and spatial processes; the relationships between genetic variation and plant community composition – how does everything fit together? Does it all fit together? I suggest that conservation biology in general, and conservation genetics in particular, should pay more attention to the possibility of local adaptation. And that studies of associations between biodiversity and environmental or historical variables need to include simultaneous analysis of a range of variables.
