The Beringian Coevolution Project: holistic collections of mammals and associated parasites reveal novel perspectives on evolutionary and environmental change in the North

The Beringian Coevolution Project (BCP), a field program underway in the high northern latitudes since 1999, has focused on building key scientific infrastructure for integrated specimen-based studies on mammals and their associated parasites. BCP has contributed new insights across temporal and spa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arctic Science
Main Authors: Joseph A. Cook, Kurt E. Galbreath, Kayce C. Bell, Mariel L. Campbell, Suzanne Carrière, Jocelyn P. Colella, Natalie G. Dawson, Jonathan L. Dunnum, Ralph P. Eckerlin, Vadim Fedorov, Stephen E. Greiman, Genevieve M.S. Haas, Voitto Haukisalmi, Heikki Henttonen, Andrew G. Hope, Donavan Jackson, Thomas S. Jung, Anson V. Koehler, John M. Kinsella, Dianna Krejsa, Susan J. Kutz, Schuyler Liphardt, S. O. MacDonald, Jason L. Malaney, Arseny Makarikov, Jon Martin, Bryan S. McLean, Robert Mulders, Batsaikhan Nyamsuren, Sandra L. Talbot, Vasyl V. Tkach, Albina Tsvetkova, Heather M. Toman, Eric C. Waltari, Jackson S. Whitman, Eric P. Hoberg
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
French
Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2017
Subjects:
arctic
beringia
bioinformatics
climate change
ecological perturbation
geographic and host colonization
museum specimen archives
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Environmental engineering
TA170-171
Arctic
Climate change
Beringia
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2016-0042
https://doaj.org/article/e44eae4c486e4895af4e7f08530115d1
Description
Summary:The Beringian Coevolution Project (BCP), a field program underway in the high northern latitudes since 1999, has focused on building key scientific infrastructure for integrated specimen-based studies on mammals and their associated parasites. BCP has contributed new insights across temporal and spatial scales into how ancient climate and environmental change have shaped faunas, emphasizing processes of assembly, persistence, and diversification across the vast Beringian region. BCP collections also represent baseline records of biotic diversity from across the northern high latitudes at a time of accelerated environmental change. These specimens and associated data form an unmatched resource for identifying hidden diversity, interpreting past responses to climate oscillations, documenting contemporary conditions, and anticipating outcomes for complex biological systems in a regime of ecological perturbation. Because of its dual focus on hosts and parasites, the BCP record also provides a foundation for comparative analyses that can document the effects of dynamic change on the geographic distribution, transmission dynamics, and emergence of pathogens. By using specific examples from carnivores, eulipotyphlans, lagomorphs, rodents, ungulates, and their associated parasites, we demonstrate how broad, integrated field collections provide permanent infrastructure that informs policy decisions regarding human impact and the effect of climate change on natural populations.

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