Research links climate change to ecological changes and adverse impacts on animals. Specifically, climate change is associated with shifts in phenology, changes or expansions of species’ range distributions, and increases in disease and pest epidemics. Limited research has documented undergraduate students’ knowledge about the biotic impacts of climate change. Our central research question asked: What are undergraduate students’ conceptions about the impacts of climate change on animals? We used a basic interpretive qualitative research design. We developed a semi-structured interview protocol that explored students’ conceptions of the impacts of climate change on animals across marine, forest, and tundra ecosystems. We conducted interviews with 13 undergraduate students enrolled in Introductory Biology or Ecology classes from 8 institutions across the US. We used a two-phase model of qualitative data analysis. First, we coded data into descriptive categories of students’ conceptions of the impacts of climate change on animals (e.g., changes to distribution, effects on growth or survival, changes to reproduction). Next, we coded data into conception categories (e.g., scientific conception, alternative conception).
Results/Conclusions
Students in our sample held scientific and alternative conceptions of the impacts of climate change on animals. Many students identified that outcomes of climate change affect multiple species mediated by species interactions, and a common scientific conception was that climate change could affect trophic dynamics. However, several students showed incomplete scientific conceptions as they failed to mention functional redundancy and prey switching that may temper these effects. Our findings contribute preliminary understandings of undergraduate student knowledge of the biotic impacts of climate change on animals. The findings call for instructors to reflect on how to teach students the details of these ecological processes to reduce gaps in their understanding of biotic impacts of climate change on animals. Our work represents a novel perspective because research at the university-level has primarily focused on earth and atmospheric science and students’ knowledge of the causes and abiotic impacts of climate change. Further, this work is the first step in a larger project that aims to develop a valid and reliable concept inventory related to biotic impacts of climate change – an instrument sorely needed to properly address improvements to climate change education.