Jim Provan (Educator)

Jim Provan (Educator)

My research focuses on using evolutionary genetics approaches to determine the capacity for natural populations to respond to past, present and future climate change.

Location Queen's University Belfast

Activity

  • Jim Provan (Educator) replied to Konstantina Sinopoulou
    Migration and modeling

    Hi Konstantina,

    It is entirely feasible that some species might actually expand their ranges, particularly in the short term. The IPCC have just released new data to replace the previous SRES data (including the A2). They are now looking at Representative Concentration...

  • Jim Provan (Educator) replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
    Discussion

    Hi Joanne,
    There is a massive body of literature, much of it theoretical (and some of it contradictory), about the role of marginal populations in evolution. My group is currently developing research programmes to study this further. You're right to highlight this as a very important concept.

  • Jim Provan (Educator) replied to Martin Williams
    Discussion

    Hi Martin,
    Yes - pretty much spot on. Without going into too much detail, there are two evolutionary "pathways". The first is through the evolution of new mutations that confer an advantage under the new climatic regime - this, not surprisingly, is a slow process. The other is adaptation from what we call "standing" genetic variation. This is a set of...

  • Jim Provan (Educator) replied to Brian Mears
    Discussion

    Excellent point David - people have to bear in mind that "climate" refers to longer-term changes and trends, allowing for shorter-term (i.e. annual) fluctuations.

  • Jim Provan (Educator) made a comment
    Discussion

    Thanks for all the interesting observations so far. There seem to be two main themes here, one of milder winters, and one concerning the absence of familiar species or the new occurrence of species which previously were not present. It would be interesting to try the modelling exercise on the species you all mention to see if the results match your own...

  • Jim Provan (Educator) replied to Johnny Miletic
    Discussion

    Good point about disease Johnny - emergent pests and diseases are something that many people fail to link to climate change. We'll highlight this in Week 5.

  • Jim Provan (Educator) replied to Aoife McDermott
    What is Food Fraud?

    Yes - our very own Professor Chris Elliott chaired the enquiry. The findings are available online.