MAJOR NERC GRANT WIN!!!
11/03/16 23:25
Dr Stewart Plaistow, Dr David Atkinson and Prof. Steve Paterson have been awarded £1.2 million to investigate what limits the ability of species to adapt to a changing environment.
Over the next four years the team will study rapid evolution in Daphnia magna, a water flea that has a major impact on water quality and the health of freshwater ecosystems. They will examine the response of D. magna, and its associated ecosystem, to heat-waves. Field experiments will be performed in 48 identical ponds at Ness Botanic gardens. The study will exploit the latest DNA sequencing technologies to better understand the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptation to climate change.
The researchers will also investigate the potential importance of two further processes - plasticity and epigenetics - for adaptation. Plasticity allows individuals to change their pattern of development, growth and/or reproduction in response to the environment, and epigenetics allows these changes to be transmitted to their offspring by modifying the action of genes.
Over the next four years the team will study rapid evolution in Daphnia magna, a water flea that has a major impact on water quality and the health of freshwater ecosystems. They will examine the response of D. magna, and its associated ecosystem, to heat-waves. Field experiments will be performed in 48 identical ponds at Ness Botanic gardens. The study will exploit the latest DNA sequencing technologies to better understand the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptation to climate change.
The researchers will also investigate the potential importance of two further processes - plasticity and epigenetics - for adaptation. Plasticity allows individuals to change their pattern of development, growth and/or reproduction in response to the environment, and epigenetics allows these changes to be transmitted to their offspring by modifying the action of genes.