Location: Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Kildare St, Dublin 2
Event Website: http://www.ucd.ie/earth
Start Date: 13/03/2009
End Date: 13/03/2009
Dr. Jon Yearsley UCD School of Biology & Environmental Science A behind-the-science look at predictions of species extinction from climate change Every month we can read headlines such as "Ireland's iconic native birds at risk from climate change" and "Climate change a threat to plant species diversity". The scale of the predicted effects can seem too large to truly take in - "Over half of Europe's amphibians face extinction by 2050". Are these headlines truly reflecting the science which they claim to report? How do scientists go about making such predictions? Which predictions are widely accepted? What is still not understood? We will discuss some of the approaches that scientists are using to predict the effect of climate change upon our ecosystems. We will start by looking at the amazing complexity of ecosystems, even those of your back garden, why this biodiversity is seen as being important and how it is quantified. We will then talk about how scientists are taking th