Director of Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew Launches Book on Climate Change

Posted on: 13 June 2011

A new book entitled ‘Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics’, edited by individuals from the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin, was recently launched by Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Professor Stephen Hopper.  The book, which examines the ongoing impact of climate change on the ecology and diversity of life on earth, was edited by Lecturer in Botany Trevor Hodkinson; University Professor of Botany, Mike Jones; Professor of Systematic Botany, John Parnell, and Senior Lecturer in Botany, Stephen Waldren.

The book stresses how climate change has shaped life in the past and will continue to do so in the future.  It also describes the challenge science faces to understand the interactions between climate and biodiversity − a key research theme of the School of Natural Sciences and associated Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research.  With contributions from 60 key researchers, the book presents the latest research within the fields of ecology and systematics, highlighting the increasing integration of their approaches and methods. Topics covered include the influence of climate change on evolutionary and ecological processes such as adaptation, migration, speciation and extinction, and the role of these processes in determining the diversity and biogeographic distribution of species and their populations.

Ultimately, ‘Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics’ illustrates the necessity for global conservation and actions to mitigate the effects of climate change in a world that is already undergoing a biodiversity crisis of unprecedented scale.  More information is available online.

Pictured at the launch were Trevor Hodkinson, Steve Hopper and John Parnell.