AP previews Gill’s talk on looking to past to inform modern conservation

The Associated Press reported Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at the University of Maine, will speak April 19 at the Merryspring Nature Center in Camden about how scientists are looking to the past for clues about threats to modern biodiversity. The assistant professor in the School of Biology and Ecology and the Climate Change Institute will talk about how a “deep-time perspective” can inform modern conservation by allowing for consideration of global events such as past climate change, extinction and species introduction, according to the AP. Gill, whose work focuses on how climate change impacts biodiversity, will discuss ways in which long extinct organisms can also help provide answers to today’s conservation questions, such as whether scientists should attempt to clone mammoths to try to save today’s elephants, the report states. The Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Portland Press Herald, WABI (Channel 5), Daily Journal, WLBZ (Channel 2), The Washington Times, Newsradio WGAN and Fosters.com carried the AP report.