SYMP 10

Integrating Genetics into Strategies for Mitigating Global Change Problems

The genes of individual organisms are now known to influence phenotypes at previously unimagined levels of biological organization. Changes in the frequency or expression of important genes on individual phenotypes can cascade to affect community interactions and ecosystem processes involving 1000s of species. These insights are possible using common gardens, a centuries-old method which, with recent experimental complexity, has proven indispensable for understanding how abiotic and biotic environments as well as the genotypes of focal species influence the phenotypes of their associated ecological communities. Advances in genomics, and ecological modeling, involving bioinformatics, and environmental sensing, combined with common garden technology, have the potential to transform current understanding of community structure and ecosystem processes, especially in the context of global change. We call this initiative, Global-INTEGRATE: a Global Integrated Network To Expand Genetics-based Research and Address the Environment. Speakers in this symposium will explain how to expand the science for understanding global change by promoting a shared experimental platform; one that integrates studies from aquatic and terrestrial systems, quantifies key features that unify or distinguish each system, and provides integrated strategies for mitigating the effects of climate change, invasive species, habitat degradation, and other challenges now approachable using common gardens. Global change, encompassing climate change, invasive species, and human land use, are among the most important challenges of our time, threatening the biodiversity, human health, and economic security of the planet. Global-INTEGRATE will provide a framework for integrating genetics-based solutions to global change effects throughout the developed, and the developing world.