Abstract
Species evolve in dynamic landscapes where their distributions are constantly changing, expanding and contracting within human lifespans and fragmenting or coming into contact across the landscape on large timescales. Understanding the dynamics of short-term range changes and studying the ways in which ecology and distribution drive diversification can help us understand how climates and climatic tolerance drive the biogeographic patterns we observe today. Whether its species currently expanding across Nebraska to taxa isolated on Afrotropical mountains, these distributional shifts are key to understanding how individual organisms evolve and how communities of organisms change through time.

Speaker’s Bio
Dr. Jacob C. Cooper’s research encompasses evolution and ecology broadly, with emphases on niche ecology, biogeography, and community dynamics. His research focuses mostly on the birds of the Americas and Africa, incorporating theoretical work and field expeditions to understand the evolution and ecology of communities in the tropics. Jacob was recently hired as an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he plans to work on range expansion and ecology of birds in the Great Plains.