CAMDEN — A University of Maine ecologist who specializes in the ice age will speak about how scientists are looking to the past for clues about threats to biodiversity today.

Dr. Jacquelyn Gill will speak at the Merryspring Nature Center in Camden at noon Tuesday.

She 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.

Gill 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.

Gill’s work focuses on how climate changes impacts biodiversity. She is with UMaine’s School of Biology and Ecology and the Climate Change Institute.