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Research Guides

BIO220: From Genomes to Ecosystems in a Changing World

This guide will help BIO220 and other biology students to get started searching for and writing about research in biology

Finding Climate Change Information

For your report, you will need to find information about how the climate is changing in the geographic regions where your species lives. You might find this information in scientific articles, or other sources like reports from governments or non-governmental organizations. Maps can be a helpful starting point for visualizing climate change information.

You will also need to find information about the factors that affect how species respond to climate change. This is most likely to be found in scholarly articles. See Finding Journal Articles for more details about finding academic articles.

Remember: You need to cite your climate data! If you find this information on a website, such as a government website, look at their references - the information usually comes from a published report which you can cite as a scholarly source.

Using Journal Articles to Find Climate Change Information

To find journal articles on climate change, try searching databases like GEOBASE or Web of Science. If you're not finding what you need, check out other Environmental Sciences databases. See Finding Journal Articles for search tips.

To find information on how the climate is changing in your species' range, consider the following:

  • What are the indicators of climate that are changing or expected to change? (For example, temperature and precipitation)
  • Can you find data about how these indicators are changing now, or how they are predicted to change?
  • Try using specific keywords related to your species' range, such as country names

To find research about how any species might respond to climate change, consider:

  • What traits of a species might impact its ability to adapt, acclimate, or shift its range? Based on what you've learned about the natural history of your species, does it have these traits?
  • How have other, similar species responded to similar changes in climate?
  • What other factors might impact how a species responds to climate change, and are these relevant to your species?

Remember: You are not looking for articles that tell you exactly how your species is going to respond to climate change. You are looking for relevant information in scholarly sources that support the arguments you are making for your hypothesis.

Climate Change Reports

Other Resources

Searching for Articles

To find articles: from the U of T library homepage, you can search using either the advanced search option or through subject specific databases.

The advanced article search allows you to use keywords. By narrowing down your search results using the facets on the left hand side, you can find relevant articles. Also, if you know the specific details of the article you are looking for, such as volume, issue and/or title, this is where you can search for it.

Advanced search with facets

It is likely that you will receive an overwhelming amount of results, but by selecting the appropriate search filters, format and subject options, you can narrow down your results.

To find the most useful databases for your subject, click on "Databases" from the UTL library homepage, then select "Article databases by subjects A-Z", and then choose a subject from the list. For example, if we select "Biology" from this list, we see key biology and multidisciplinary databases such as BIOSIS, Scopus, and Web of Science. This can also lead you to other resources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Resource Guide.

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