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Alexander LevesqueI am studying the impacts of projected climate change on two sympatric species of salamander. Spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and blue-spotted salamanders (Ambystoma laterale) overlap on their northern and southern range margins, respectively. If their range margins represent their physiological temperature limits, we might therefore expect that a population at its southern range margin would be more harshly impacted by climate change than those to the north. Alternatively, we might expect that these animals are plastic enough to be buffered against the selective pressure to adapt to their local thermal conditions. I intend to raise larvae from wild-collected eggs of both species to understand how these animals respond to their habitat conditions across a latitudinal gradient of their sympatric range and how their larval conditions influence their post-metamorphic phenotype in this respect.
Education M.Sc. Biology - Concordia University, 2025 B.Sc. Life Sciences - University of Toronto, 2023 Contact Email: [email protected] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-levesque |