Images: cliff1066 (flamingo) and  Er. We (dragonfly) / flickr.com

How do I come up with a hypothesis about how my species will respond to climate change? How can I find information to support my hypothesis about whether my species will adapt, acclimate, or move?

First, learn everything you can about the natural history of your species. This includes information about their diet, reproduction, lifespan, geographic range, and more. This type of information can often be found in books or encyclopedias. Then, use an academic database like Web of Science to see what sort of research has been conducted on your species, similar species (such as in the same genus), or species with similar interactions with their environments. Use the following tutorial to help you come up with keywords to use in a web or library search. When in doubt, try something - you might be surprised with what you come up with.

Then, do some research into how climate is changing in your species' geographic range. What changes in temperature and precipitation are expected? Are there other important climate variables which might affect your species, given how your species interacts with its environment?

Finally, do some research into what factors affect how a species of any kind responds to climate change. What traits make it likely that a species can shift its range, adapt, or acclimate to a changed climate? Think back to the research you did on your species. Does it have any of these traits? What does that mean for how your species will respond to climate change?

Here is an example of you might start looking for information on your species:

1. Go to Google and enter hawk moth
   • The Wikipedia article has general background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphingidae
   • This Wikipedia article also has References at the end of the article which can lead you to further sources sources of information such as journal articles, books, and websites.
2. Look at the references to see which are available from the library:
   • e.g. "Grimaldi, David & Engel, Michael S. (2005): Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press"  is available from several UofT Libraries: Evolution of the insects

The first step in choosing keywords is to think about what information you need to search for. This seems obvious, and to a certain extent you are probably already doing it. But a more systematic approach will reward you.

1. Break the search down into the key concepts:

   • hawk moth and tongue
2. Brainstorm (or look for in your background reading) synonyms. Tip: You will get more results if you use the common and scientific names for organisms.
   • hawk moth OR sphingidae
   • tongue OR proboscis
3. Combine these terms in a logical way:
   • OR: combines synonyms -  hawk moth OR sphingidae (either of these concepts should be present in results - not ALL terms need to be present)
   • 
   • AND: use when combining different concepts since both these concepts need to be present in results
   • (hawk moth OR sphingidae) AND (tongue OR proboscis)
4. Things to consider when considering words/terms to include in your search:
   • think of synonyms
   • think of plural and singular variations of words (e.g. moth or moths)
   • use truncation to search for singular and plural versions of words: (e.g. moth*)
   • think of spelling variations: (e.g. behaviour OR behavior)

Too Many Results?

1. Did you combine with OR rather than AND? Remember to combine similar terms with OR
   (e.g. SARS OR severe acute respiratory syndrome and different terms with AND (e.g. SARS AND vaccines)
2. Is there a more specific term or phrase you can use?
   e.g. SARS instead of infectious disease?
3. Is there another word or phrase you can add? The more words you AND together, the more focused your results.
   e.g. SARS AND vaccines AND human
4. Can you limit your search words/terms to the title or subject/descriptor fields? This makes for a more precise search.
5. Can you limit your search by publication year or language?
    

Too Few Results?

1. Did you combine all your words with AND? Remember to combine similar terms with OR
   e.g. SARS OR severe acute respiratoty syndrome
2. Use a wildcard (*) to retrieve different word endings (plural vs. singular, Canadian vs. American spelling).
   e.g. vaccin* to find vaccine, vaccines, vaccination, etc.
3. Consider using more broad terms.
   e.g. infectious diseases instead of SARS
4. Remove limits such as publication year.
5. Try another journal article database.
6. Look for references cited in the articles you find