Most organisms are affected by climate: where they occur, how their physiology is organized, or when they breed or migrate. Climate change is thus expected to affect organisms in many possible ways. Long-term data clearly show changes in species ranges or timing of breeding. Some species may profit from these changes, whereas many more are likely to suffer, because their populations are already under pressure through habitat destruction or other human related activities. Little is known how the projected climate change will affect population dynamics, let alone the functioning of entire ecosystems, and the potentially cascading effects must be a concern for society at large.

From a biologists’ perspective, climate change is an interesting experiment, because the process of adaptation to changing environments can be studied in detail. How quickly do species adapt, and how do species differ in speed of adaptation? Are evolutionary changes observed and required or can flexible responses suffice? What are the consequences for population dynamics if a species does adapt insufficiently? And how would this affect the stability of ecosystems? These are the kind of questions our research group is dealing with. Most of our work is performed on a small insectivorous passerine, the pied flycatcher.