Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate Using first principles of evolution and to understand the large-scale temporal and spatial distributions of biological diversity on Earth in light the past, present and future climate change

Background and main research question

Life on Earth is diverse and shows dramatic patterns of variation in space and time. Research at the center takes on the grand challenge of answering one of the most fundamentally important questions facing science today: what are the fundamental evolutionary and ecological principles and processes that determine and result in the complex pattern of the distribution of life on Earth? This, the ‘holy grail’ question of biology, has been a research theme since Global pattern of all 4,818 non-marine the days of Von Humboldt, Wallace and Darwin. mammal species ( 1-degree latitude x longitude resolution) Despite two centuries’ of effort, however, it remains unresolved and continues to spur heated debate and cause controversies.

Mission of the research program Taking on the challenges

The objective of the research is to reconcile current To achieve the mission of the center, we bring together controversies through the amalgamation of historical, marine and terrestrial researchers and their data. We evolutionary and contemporary data within a single will merge macroecological distribution data on unified analytical framework. This insight will be thousands of species (millions of records) with used to achieve greater accuracy in predicting evolutionary information derived from complete biosphere responses to changes in land- and ocean- phylogenetic trees. We will combine the use of modern use as well as to global climate in order to develop DNA-techniques, novel macroecological predictive and replacements for current, biologically naïve, climate null models, new climate-change ensemble forecast change models that are more realistic and sound. We models of , and powerful address two of the most pressing challenges of our bioinformatics tools and statistics. This will enable a time: 1) how to combat the ongoing global mass truly holistic approach in which we also intend to extinction of species and of natural explore how the major geophysical and oceanic resources and 2) how to predict the effect of global processes act together in shaping the distribution of life climate change on biological diversity and on Earth. environmental resources.

Processes Impact driving of Organization and contact present climate distributions change The center will juxtapose scientists from the Faculty of Science and Bioscience (University of Copenhagen) Present Future Past state of and the National Institute of Aquatic Resources processes patterns biodiversity (Technical University of Denmark) within the fields of macroecology, historical , oceanography, Processes Impact of affecting changes in evolutionary biology, ecology, population biology, present land and populations ocean use climate change research, conservation biology and environmental economics. The center leader is Carsten Past Present Future Rahbek, professor at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen. The research framework of the center: We cannot predict Contact E-mail: [email protected] the future if we do not understand the past and the present. Center starts 1st of January 2010