Climate Change Effects on Biology and Ecology Discussed by Colorado State Biologist Oct. 9

What is climate change doing to plants and animals worldwide and in Colorado?  How might it affect them in 20 years? Will warmer average temperatures in the Rocky Mountain West push alpine flower meadows and high altitude animals off the tops of mountains? Colorado State University biologist Alan Knapp will address these and other climate change questions at 7 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Lory Student Center North Ballroom with his presentation, "The Biological and Ecological Effects of Climate Change."  An open discussion will follow.

Knapp’s lecture is the second of seven public lectures that are running through the academic year addressing global warming from a variety of perspectives, including policy and policy makers, economics, effects on people, literature and creative writing and possible solutions. The series, "Climate Change: What We All Need To Know," draws on the breadth and depth of CSU’s involvement in climate change research, featuring national experts among its faculty as well as leading scholars and writers from other universities.

All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Knapp is professor of biology and senior ecologist for the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. His research focuses on plants and grassland ecosystems, with a goal of understanding ecological patterns and processes from the leaf to the ecosystem level. He has studied plant physiological ecology, ecosystem ecology, climate change, long-term ecological dynamics, invasive plant species, and fire and herbivory effects on communities and ecosystems. Much of his research has been associated with the Long-Term Ecological Research Programs at the Konza Prairie in Kansas and the shortgrass steppe in Colorado, with comparative international studies ongoing in South Africa.

This year’s lecture series is part of an on-going program called Changing Climates @ CSU which seeks to increase public awareness and understanding of current science and research on climate change.

For more information, contact John Calderazzo in the CSU Department of English at (970) 491-6896 or jcaldera@lamar.colostate.edu, or visit Changing Climates @ CSU on the Web at http://changingclimates.colostate.edu.

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