Christy McCain, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator of vertebrates in the CU Museum of Natural History, will present the 124th Distinguished Research Lecture.
 

Mountain Biodiversity and Climate Change

For the past 16 years, Professor Christy McCain’s lab has studied how mammal populations in the Front Range and San Juan Mountains are impacted by human-driven environmental changes based on comparisons with historical surveys. Additionally, McCain has studied how beetles, specifically a charismatic group of carrion beetles, can be used to examine how various physiological traits like heat and desiccation tolerance may be critical to responses to climate change. Both studies will illustrate a key lesson learned in mountain conservation: certain traits of animals like body size and physiology underpin where and which organisms might be at the most risk from anthropogenic change. 

A reception will follow the lecture and Q&A from 5–6 p.m.

About the Distinguished Research Lecture

The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the most esteemed honors bestowed by the faculty upon a faculty member at CU Boulder. Each year, the Research & Innovation Office solicits nominations from faculty for the Lectureship, and a faculty review panel recommends one faculty member as a recipient.