Integrating theory and data to model evolution under a changing climate

How resilient will our iconic Australian flora be to changing climate and shifting environmental extremes? Australia has invested in biodiversity data services, but to maximise the utility of our data resources for the benefit of conservation planning and environmental management, we need innovative and efficient ways to analyse these data. Falling within the 'Environmental Change' research priority area, this project will develop new tools that integrate data from genes, fossils, species traits, distribution maps and climate models to characterise the adaptability of biological species to changing climate. This will provide conservation biologists, environmental consultants, and policy makers with more reliable and efficient software to identify the most vulnerable species under climate change. This project will demonstrate the usefulness of the software by reconstructing the past evolution, assessing the current climatic adaptability and predicting the future of t