A video lecture that gives an overview of how vegetation responds to climate change in terms of phenotypic plasticity, range shifts, phenology, and population changes.
Video lecture: Plant Responses to Climate Related Abiotic Stress
Teaching Module: Plant Response to Climate related Temperature and Water Stress
This teaching module allows students to explore the role of stomata in regulating leaf temperature and water loss from plants under different environmental and climatic conditions.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Photosynthesis Under Variable Environmental Conditions
A simple simulator that allows users to change a range of variables such as the color of light, brightness of light, and carbon dioxide concentration, and then note their impact on the photosynthetic efficiency of a plant.
Reading: Photosynthesis and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
A reading that discusses the effects of elevated CO2 levels on the photosynthetic efficiency of field-grown plants.
Reading: Natural Selection and Evolutionary Rescue of a Species
A reading that shows that climate change can be a selective pressure in natural selection. It explains how the selection of a character that provides an adaptive advantage in a changed environment, leads to the ‘evolutionary rescue’ of a species.
Video: Natural Selection and Climate Change
A video that shows that climate change can be a selective pressure in natural selection that can lead to the ‘evolutionary rescue’ of a species.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Carbon Dioxide and Photosynthetic Rates
A classroom/laboratory activity that shows how to measure the rate of photosynthesis and its changes under different conditions including high concentrations of carbon dioxide, a potential contributor to climate change.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Squirrel Species Distribution and Climate Change
A classroom/laboratory activity to examine and analyze squirrel species distribution and habitat data (from the USA) over time, and to interpret the possible relationship between climate change and changes in biodiversity.
Classroom Activity: Climate Change and Phenology in Plants (Flowering)
A classroom/ laboratory activity to learn about phenology and phenological events, and to understand the potential impacts of climate change on periodic life-cycle events in plants, specifically, on the bloom date of North American lilac shrubs.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Survival Skills—Response of Organisms to Climate Change
A classroom/laboratory activity to analyze the distribution of beetle, mammal, and plant species (for datasets from North America) in the past (based on fossil records), determine whether the same species exist today, and compare the past and present geographic ranges and ecosystems of these species.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Climate Change and Leaf-out in Plants
A classroom/laboratory activity to explore the possible role of climate-related environmental factors in the timing of leaf-out in plants (specifically, red maple leaf-out in New England).
Videos: Earth’s Climate, the Biosphere, and Geological Evolution
Teaching Module: Climate Change & Phenological Events in Plants and Animals
A set of resources to understand the link between periodic life-cycle events in plants and animals (such as flowering, leaf-out, and migration), and climate change.
Reading: Phenology and Climate
A reading that introduces the topic of phenology, its significance, and the link between plant phenology and climate.
Video: Climate Change and the American Pika
A video that explains the impact of climate change on the habitat and population of a species (specifically, the American Pika) and explores whether this species could be used as an indicator of climate change.