ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4955-2530
Current Organisations
James Cook University
,
SRM Institute of Science and Technology
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-03-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-11-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.8376
Abstract: The drivers behind evolutionary innovations such as contrasting life histories and morphological change are central questions of evolutionary biology. However, the environmental and ecological contexts linked to evolutionary innovations are generally unclear. During the Pleistocene glacial cycles, grounded ice sheets expanded across the Southern Ocean continental shelf. Limited ice‐free areas remained, and fauna were isolated from other refugial populations. Survival in Southern Ocean refugia could present opportunities for ecological adaptation and evolutionary innovation. Here, we reconstructed the phylogeographic patterns of circum‐Antarctic brittle stars Ophionotus victoriae and O . hexactis with contrasting life histories (broadcasting vs brooding) and morphology (5 vs 6 arms). We examined the evolutionary relationship between the two species using cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) data. COI data suggested that O . victoriae is a single species (rather than a species complex) and is closely related to O . hexactis (a separate species). Since their recent ergence in the mid‐Pleistocene, O . victoriae and O . hexactis likely persisted differently throughout glacial maxima, in deep‐sea and Antarctic island refugia, respectively. Genetic connectivity, within and between the Antarctic continental shelf and islands, was also observed and could be linked to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and local oceanographic regimes. Signatures of a probable seascape corridor linking connectivity between the Scotia Sea and Prydz Bay are also highlighted. We suggest that survival in Antarctic island refugia was associated with increase in arm number and a switch from broadcast spawning to brooding in O . hexactis , and propose that it could be linked to environmental changes (such as salinity) associated with intensified interglacial‐glacial cycles.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16224
Abstract: The Southern Ocean is experiencing unprecedented environmental risks and consequences from current climate change. It is unclear how the benthic fauna, which has largely evolved in isolation, will respond to future changes. Knowing how the benthic fauna persisted through repeated extreme glacial-interglacial cycles in the past provides a unique opportunity to inform future predictions. Right now, understanding and preserving current genetic ersity and connectivity between populations will give species the best chance to adapt.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-09-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16356
Abstract: Anthropogenic climate change is causing observable changes in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean including increased air and ocean temperatures, glacial melt leading to sea‐level rise and a reduction in salinity, and changes to freshwater water availability on land. These changes impact local Antarctic ecosystems and the Earth's climate system. The Antarctic has experienced significant past environmental change, including cycles of glaciation over the Quaternary Period (the past ~2.6 million years). Understanding Antarctica's paleoecosystems, and the corresponding paleoenvironments and climates that have shaped them, provides insight into present day ecosystem change, and importantly, helps constrain model projections of future change. Biological archives such as extant moss beds and peat profiles, biological proxies in lake and marine sediments, vertebrate animal colonies, and extant terrestrial and benthic marine invertebrates, complement other Antarctic paleoclimate archives by recording the nature and rate of past ecological change, the paleoenvironmental drivers of that change, and constrain current ecosystem and climate models. These archives provide invaluable information about terrestrial ice‐free areas, a key location for Antarctic bio ersity, and the continental margin which is important for understanding ice sheet dynamics. Recent significant advances in analytical techniques (e.g., genomics, biogeochemical analyses) have led to new applications and greater power in elucidating the environmental records contained within biological archives. Paleoecological and paleoclimate discoveries derived from biological archives, and integration with existing data from other paleoclimate data sources, will significantly expand our understanding of past, present, and future ecological change, alongside climate change, in a unique, globally significant region.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 21-06-2021
Abstract: Fisheries are currently under pressure to provide increasing amounts of seafood, causing a growing number of marine stocks to be harvested at unsustainable levels. To ensure marine resources remain sustainable, careful management of biological stocks and their genetic integrity is required. The Eastern Rock Lobster, Sagmariasus verreauxi, is commercially harvested along the New South Wales (NSW) coast of eastern Australia and is managed as a single unit. Due to overfishing, the NSW S. verreauxi stock was severely depleted in the mid-1990s but has since been rebuilding. This study evaluates the population genetic structure, putative local adaptation, and potential of a population bottleneck for NSW S. verreauxi. Using neutral single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we determined NSW S. verreauxi consist of a single genetic stock, with outlier SNPs detecting weak genetic ergence among offshore locations, and evidence of population bottlenecks at all locations. Our findings (i) confirm a single management unit is appropriate (ii) can be used as a baseline for future genetic monitoring of NSW S. verreauxi and (iii) highlights the importance of implementing routine genetic monitoring and collecting temporal s les to understand the full impact of overfishing on a species resilience.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-04-2023
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.16951
Abstract: Understanding the drivers of evolutionary innovation provides a crucial perspective of how evolutionary processes unfold across taxa and ecological systems. It has been hypothesised that the Southern Ocean provided ecological opportunities for novelty in the past. However, the drivers of innovation are challenging to pinpoint as the evolutionary genetics of Southern Ocean fauna are influenced by Quaternary glacial–interglacial cycles, oceanic currents and species ecology. Here we examined the genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphisms of the Southern Ocean brittle stars Ophionotus victoriae (five arms, broadcaster) and O. hexactis (six arms, brooder). We found that O. victoriae and O. hexactis are closely‐related species with interspecific gene flow. During the late Pleistocene, O. victoriae likely persisted in a connected deep water refugium and in situ refugia on the Antarctic continental shelf and around Antarctic islands O. hexactis persisted exclusively within in situ island refugia. Within O. victoriae , contemporary gene flow linking to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, regional gyres and other local oceanographic regimes was observed. Gene flow connecting West and East Antarctic islands near the Polar Front was also detected in O. hexactis . A strong association was detected between outlier loci and salinity in O. hexactis . Both O. victoriae and O. hexactis are associated with genome‐wide increase in alleles at intermediate‐frequencies the alleles associated with this peak appear to be species specific, and these intermediate‐frequency variants are far more excessive in O. hexactis . We hypothesise that the peak in alleles at intermediate frequencies could be related to adaptation in the recent past, linked to evolutionary innovations of increase in arm number and a switch to brooding from broadcasting, in O. hexactis .
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-10-2020
DOI: 10.1111/REC.13267
Abstract: Reef‐building oysters historically provided the main structural and ecological component of temperate and subtropical coastal waters globally. While the loss of oyster reefs is documented in most regions globally, assessments of the status of Asian oyster reefs are limited. The feasibility of restoration within the regional biological and societal contexts needs to be assessed before implementation. Here, we quantified the current distribution of natural oyster reefs ( Crassostrea spp.) in the shallow coastal waters of Hong Kong, assessed the biological feasibility of reestablishing reefs using natural recruitment, and examined their current and potential water filtration capacity as a key ecosystem service provided by restoration. We found natural low‐relief oyster beds in the low intertidal coastal areas at a subset of the locations surveyed. These areas are, however, degraded and have sparse densities of oysters generally years old. Recruitment was high in some areas ( ,000 in ./m 2 ) and while survival to maturity varied across sites there was adequate larval supply and survival for restoration. Filtration rates for a 1‐year‐old recruit (90 mm length, approximately 30 L/hour per in idual) at summer temperatures (30°C) meant that even the small remnant populations are able to provide some filtration services (up to 31.7 ML/hour). High natural recruitment means that oyster reef restoration can be achieved with the addition of hard substrate for recruitment, increased protection of restoration sites, and would not only increase the ecological value of reefs regionally but also serve as a model for future restoration in Asia.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-03-2020
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.04951
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 31-01-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.29.525778
Abstract: The marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is considered vulnerable to collapse under future climate trajectories and may even lie within the mitigated warming scenarios of 1.5–2 °C of the United Nations Paris Agreement. Knowledge of ice loss during similarly warm past climates, including the Last Interglacial period, when global sea levels were 5–10 m higher than today, and global average temperatures of 0.5–1.5 °C warmer, could resolve this uncertainty. Here we show, using a panel of genome-wide, single nucleotide polymorphisms of a circum-Antarctic octopus, persistent, historic signals of gene flow only possible with complete WAIS collapse. Our results provide the first empirical evidence that the tipping point of WAIS loss could be reached even under stringent climate mitigation scenarios. Historical gene flow in marine animals indicate the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed during the Last Interglacial period.
Publisher: Zenodo
Date: 2022
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-04-2020
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12460
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Sally Lau.