Environmental Paleogenomics - Evolution across Centuries of Global Change
Global climate change and anthropogenic pollution are among the most prominent driving forces with well-documented negative impacts on aquatic systems. These profoundly affect biodiversity and the evolution of natural populations. The accelerated change experienced over recent decades urgently demands an improved mechanistic understanding of evolutionary adaptation to changing environments. A powerful approach to understanding the complex links between the environment and organismal responses is their direct and long-term observation on a temporal axis, i.e. by analysing time series of population genomic data and of biological communities across centuries of environmental change. Environmental Paleogenomics can achieve this by employing the theory and methodology of paleolimnology, paleogenomics and resurrection ecology (the revival of dormant propagules, allowing access to historic genotypes). In this talk, I will introduce network concepts to study evolutionary adaptation of Daphnia by mapping gene co-expression networks to phosphorus-related phenotypic traits in resurrected Daphnia. I will also present examples of my current work and give an outlook on planned research that will combine concepts of molecular evolution, omics and ecology to allow a deeper understanding of the impact of rapid global change on natural populations.
Host: Justyna Wolinska