Understanding zooplankton community responses to stressors in an era of environmental change

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In an era of environmental change, the need to understand the factors that shape the distribution and abundance of organisms on our planet is of paramount importance. At a local scale, community composition can be influenced by both the characteristics of the local habitat, as well as by biological processes such as competition and predation. At the regional scale, rates of species dispersal and the composition of the regional species pool can determine which species are available to colonize local habitats. Incorporating information on the role of regional factors is important for evaluating how communities might respond to environmental change, as dispersal rates can influence the speed at which a species range shifts, as well as the rate at which species can evolve in response to changes in their environment (through the intake of new alleles to a population).