Aim Elevational gradients distributed across the globe are a powerful test system for understanding biodiversity. Here I use a comprehensive set of bird elevational gradients to test the main drivers of diversity, including sampling, area, mid-domain effect, temperature, temperature and water availability, and hypotheses of evolutionary history. Location Seventy-eight elevational gradients of b...

“Genetically Modified Foods: Breeding Uncertainty” (Schmidt 2005) overlooked many serious concerns about the environmental and health risks of this new technology. Potential problems from antibiotic-resistant genes used in gene-altered crops, risks from unintended effects of the genetic engineering process, the increases in pesticide use stemming from widespread planting of genespliced varietie...

For an understanding of the effect of climate change on animal population dynamics, it is crucial to be able to identify which climatologic parameters affect which demographic rate, and what the underlying mechanistic links are. An important reason for why the interactions between demography and climate still are poorly understood is that the effects of climate vary both geographically and taxo...

The theme of evolutionary governance is arising often in the public discourse now-usually either in regard to some aspect of biotechnology, or in connection with our modifications of ecosystems through climate change and other interventions. It is a favorite subject of science fiction writers who weave marvelous tales about future worlds and beings shaped by human artifice, and it frames the co...

An increasing number of commercial beef producers direct themselves to crossbreeding systems in which crossbred animals have higher merit in reproduction, growth and end product. It has been claimed that heterosis in a sound crossbreeding program could increase the productivity in the beef cow herd by as much as 26% over a comparable straight breeding program. The availability of diverse beef c...

As the climate of our planet is warming, there is an urgent need to understand how temperature changes affect nature and how the species are able to cope with the changing environment. In my thesis I used Finnish long-term monitoring data to examine the effects of fluctuations in temperature and other environmental variables on the migration behavior and breeding performance of birds. I found t...

Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) is an artificial hybrid of wheat (Triticum sp.) and rye (Secale sp.) first bred in laboratories during the late 19 century. In little more than a century, triticale has developed from a biological curiosity to a practical crop. Plant breeders have made efforts to overcome main problems of triticale: preharvest sprouting, susceptibility to diseases, sensitivi...

The long-term advance in the timing of bird spring migration in the Northern Hemisphere is associated with global climate change. The extent to which changes in bird phenology reflect responses to weather conditions in the wintering or breeding areas, or during migration, however, remains to be elucidated. We analyse the relationships between the timing of spring migration of 9 species of trans...

Forest tree hybrid zones provide a wealth of novel genetic variation that can be harnessed to safeguard populations in changing climates. In the past 30 years, natural and artificial forest hybrid zones have facilitated significant contributions to selective breeding programs, conservation, and our understanding of the evolutionary processes and mechanisms that influence the maintenance of spec...

Contemporary rural Viliui Sakha of northeastern Siberia, Russia, are a Turkicspeaking people practicing horse and cattle breeding in the subarctic. This article details their story of survival in the north as one not only of adapting a southern subsistence to an extreme climate but also to the effects of Russian colonization, Soviet collectivization, and post-Soviet decentralization. In the pos...