Biogeography entwines the studies of demography, disturbances, dispersal, and in light of changing climate – disequilibrium dynamics. All of these ecological and evolutionary processes interact to shape the stability of species current and future distributions, and – as I will focus on in this talk – may be influenced by landscape heterogeneity. Using examples from a range of systems in the Western United States, including Mediterranean oak savannas, alpine tundra, and the high elevation desert, I will discuss the ways in which topographic gradients mediate population and community dynamics of plants under changing environmental conditions. For example, microclimatic gradients drive variation in demographic rates that result in multiple pathways to demographic stability across a species current range, but also may lead to multiple pathways of vulnerability to changing climate. Finally, I will discuss work synthesizing the knowledge gaps in climate adaptation in mountain landscapes – from the difficulty of defining a refugia to the challenges of managing systems with high climate variability and biological lags.

Did you miss the October 12 NC CASC webinar? It's now available to watch on your YouTube channel here.