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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100542
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$355,000.00
Summary
Understanding adaptation of plants along environmental clines. This project aims to address a key debate on the relative roles of dispersal and selection on adaptation, testing how life history traits determine the magnitude of adaptation. Since dispersal should override selection, this project endeavours to show that plants that strongly disperse will display weaker signals of adaptation but a higher capacity to adapt. The project aims to test these predictions with ecological genomics and func ....Understanding adaptation of plants along environmental clines. This project aims to address a key debate on the relative roles of dispersal and selection on adaptation, testing how life history traits determine the magnitude of adaptation. Since dispersal should override selection, this project endeavours to show that plants that strongly disperse will display weaker signals of adaptation but a higher capacity to adapt. The project aims to test these predictions with ecological genomics and functional genetics at a multi-species scale across climate gradients in South Australia, using a novel design that separates dispersal (isolation-by-distance) from selection (isolation-by-ecology). This understanding will provide improved conservation planning that seeks to restore resilience to biological communities that are under increasing environmental pressures.Read moreRead less
Is regressive evolution associated with loss of gene function in subterranean animals? This project aims to investigate a fundamental biological process: the evolutionary basis for how non-functional characters, such as eyes in subterranean animals, are lost. It will use a unique model system based on eyeless water beetles, and utilise novel new genomic tools to test whether loss of characters results from gene inactivation.
Understanding adaptation to improve conservation of Australian flora. Using the Australian flora as our model, this project aims to tackle a central issue of evolution and conservation - what drives species adaptation? Since dispersal should override selection in populations, we predict that plants that are good dispersers will display weak signals of adaptation, but a higher capacity to adapt, than poorer dispersers. From these expectations we plan to develop a new adaptation guild classificati ....Understanding adaptation to improve conservation of Australian flora. Using the Australian flora as our model, this project aims to tackle a central issue of evolution and conservation - what drives species adaptation? Since dispersal should override selection in populations, we predict that plants that are good dispersers will display weak signals of adaptation, but a higher capacity to adapt, than poorer dispersers. From these expectations we plan to develop a new adaptation guild classification, and test predictions using ecological genomics and functional genetics at a continental and multi-species scale. In addition to progressing a central tenet of evolutionary biology, this project aims to improve seed sourcing and biodiversity management, readily applicable to plants that can be quickly classified by life history traits.Read moreRead less