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News
FEBRUARY 2012 Check out the latest on the eastern US amphibian migration through our Google Map
JANUARY 2012 See our recent article on why current predictions about biodiversity losses from climate change might be conservative Selected media coverage:
NOVEMBER 2011
OCTOBER 2011 See our recent article on evolution and climate change
AUGUST 2011 See UConn Today article on recent grants and
JUNE 2011 See my new article on the evolution of species interactions
MAY 2011 See our new article highlighting research on climate change and species interactions
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Home I study the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that shape natural communities across multiple spatial scales. Across natural landscapes, the local dynamics of community interactions can be shaped both by local conditions and by migration from nearby communities. At the same time, local adaptation and maladaptation due to regional gene flow can alter the outcome of species interactions. My research focuses on this interface between migration-niche-partitioning and migration-selection dynamics in a regional context. This research seeks to answer fundamental questions about how migration and gene flow across heterogeneous landscapes shape local species interactions, patterns of community diversity and structure, the evolutionary divergence of interacting populations, the invasion success of introduced species, and responses of communities to disturbance. Most of my work focuses on aquatic systems, which are ideal systems in which to study these questions because of their patchy distribution across natural landscapes.
I apply a variety of approaches to address these questions, including old-fashioned field work, experiments performed across a variety of scales, and theoretical models ranging in complexity from simple analytical models to complex individual-based simulations. For more specific information, see my Projects page.
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Contact Information:
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Connecticut 75 N. Eagleville Rd., Unit 3043 Storrs, CT 06269-3043
Phone: 860-486-6113 Lab: 860-486-6154 Fax: 860-486-6364 E-mail: mark.urban(at)uconn.edu
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