Genes effected by global warming? Good proposal? Feedbck pls

[emmiebio]

I have to write a brief proposal for my physiological ecology class, and I'm just wondering if this makes sense?
Proposal:
Northern pocket gophers have low population densities, stick close to home, and are fiercely territorial, while Montane voles live in high-density populations and range more widely. For gophers, population declines result in reduced gene diversity; for voles—which have a larger effective population size and greater dispersal between populations— population declines resulted in increased gene diversity. What forces underlie these differences in genetic variation?

Hypothesis:

Differences in species demography can produce differential genetic response to climate change, even when ecological response is similar. Migration patterns are affected by global warming (due to effects of habit change) and therefore the selection processes are aimed towards those which are adaptive to different environments.
Also potentially gene flow...

Thanks !

[AstusAleator]

Did you write the proposal portion or just the hypothesis? The proposal portion seems to be written in the form of an essay question, which is why I'm asking.

Also, the proposal portion doesn't mention climate change at all, so the transition to your hypothesis seems rather odd.

The hypothesis is rather confusing. What do you mean by genetic response to climate change, as opposed to ecological response? I feel like it really doesn't address the proposal portion.

I think you're starting to get on the right track with gene flow though...

If the question is "What forces underly these differences in genetic variation?" I believe it's asking more about the mechanisms of evolution rather than the "natural forces" such as climate change or volcanos or something.

So in my opinion, you'd be better making your hypothesis address gene flow's role in the observed genetic variation, as well as any other mechanism you can think of.

Perhaps you've recently covered the Hardy-Weinberg equations... maybe they could be of some help to you in your theorizing.

[emmiebio]

I wrote both. Thanks for your help though it is helping me get on track in the right direction