Climate change has
become a major issue in world politics, and a rapidly growing body of evidence
continues to support that the climatic changes that earth is undergoing is
primarily the cause of humans. While one the largest anthropocentric drivers of
global warming is carbon dioxide emissions, other drivers range from land use
conversion to linear contrails (the clouds left by airplanes), which reflects
the wide array of impacts that human activity can have. However, even though
many of these causes of climate change have been identified and quantified, it
still remains extremely difficult to see what the future will hold for us, due
to the complexity of earth. Ecological systems and processes are exceedingly
complex, with many feedback loops built in on multiple temporal and spacial
scales. Furthermore, organisms can differ vastly in their ability to
physiologically respond, adapt, and disperse to shifting climatic conditions.
The goal of this blog
is to look at a particular component of a complex ecological system in the
hopes that doing so will help better our understanding of the system as a
whole. As a result, this blog will analyze Dwarf Mistletoe (Arceuthobium sp.) native to the Pacific
Northwest.
