ENAC Seminar Series by Dr K. Csilléry
Event details
| Date | 19.05.2021 |
| Hour | 09:00 › 09:45 |
| Speaker | Dr Katalin Csilléry |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
09:00 – 09:45 – Dr K. Csilléry
Group Leader at Evolutionary Genetics Group, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, CH
Going global without losing the local: upscaling environmental adaptation research
Adaptation to climate change is the major challenge of our time. While we may attempt to adapt our society, economy, and infrastructure to meet this challenge, adaptability of the biosphere is largely out of our control, yet our existence depends on it. Understanding biological adaptation has never been more essential. We need general answers and scalable results, however, most empirical ecological and evolutionary research is focusing on case studies. Several promising tools appeared in the past few years that could improve the scalability of research findings. In this talk, I will present four innovative approaches to upscale studies of adaptation to a changing environment, mostly applied to forest trees. First, harmonized, high-resolution girded environmental data are becoming available across large spatial scales. I will show examples of using unconventional environmental variables to upscale adaptation studies to the landscape level, while also stressing the importance of on-site measures. Second, species distribution models are extensively used to provide predictions of future species ranges under climate change. Using a novel database and evolutionary theory, I will describe a framework to predict future species ranges while accounting for adaptation. Third, I will show how a unique combination of existing plantations of exotic tree species and remote sensing may aid an adaptive forest management across large spatial scales. Fourth, the potential of bottom-up approaches, such as citizen science is increasingly recognized. Combined with genomic tools and statistical models borrowed from animal and plant breeding, I will explain how my ERC project leverages participatory science to upscale local adaptation experiments in an unprecedented manner.
Short bio:
Dr Csilléry is an evolutionary biologist and geneticist, with a PhD in population genetics from the University of Edinburgh in 2009. During her postdoctoral research, she pioneered the use of Approximate Bayesian Computation and developed related software. Later, she studied the ecology and genomics of forest trees at the INRAE, while maintaining a vivid interest in statistical methods. She became an independent research fellow in 2015, supported by the ETH Zurich, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Independent Fellowship and the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2020, she was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant and started her research group in Evolutionary Genetics at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. Her research provides a bridge between genomics, traits, and the environment to understand how selection has shaped the complex life-histories of tree species, and uses a wide range of tools from field experiments, through statistical modeling, to evolutionary quantitative genetic theory.
Group Leader at Evolutionary Genetics Group, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, CH
Going global without losing the local: upscaling environmental adaptation research
Adaptation to climate change is the major challenge of our time. While we may attempt to adapt our society, economy, and infrastructure to meet this challenge, adaptability of the biosphere is largely out of our control, yet our existence depends on it. Understanding biological adaptation has never been more essential. We need general answers and scalable results, however, most empirical ecological and evolutionary research is focusing on case studies. Several promising tools appeared in the past few years that could improve the scalability of research findings. In this talk, I will present four innovative approaches to upscale studies of adaptation to a changing environment, mostly applied to forest trees. First, harmonized, high-resolution girded environmental data are becoming available across large spatial scales. I will show examples of using unconventional environmental variables to upscale adaptation studies to the landscape level, while also stressing the importance of on-site measures. Second, species distribution models are extensively used to provide predictions of future species ranges under climate change. Using a novel database and evolutionary theory, I will describe a framework to predict future species ranges while accounting for adaptation. Third, I will show how a unique combination of existing plantations of exotic tree species and remote sensing may aid an adaptive forest management across large spatial scales. Fourth, the potential of bottom-up approaches, such as citizen science is increasingly recognized. Combined with genomic tools and statistical models borrowed from animal and plant breeding, I will explain how my ERC project leverages participatory science to upscale local adaptation experiments in an unprecedented manner.
Short bio:
Dr Csilléry is an evolutionary biologist and geneticist, with a PhD in population genetics from the University of Edinburgh in 2009. During her postdoctoral research, she pioneered the use of Approximate Bayesian Computation and developed related software. Later, she studied the ecology and genomics of forest trees at the INRAE, while maintaining a vivid interest in statistical methods. She became an independent research fellow in 2015, supported by the ETH Zurich, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Independent Fellowship and the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2020, she was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant and started her research group in Evolutionary Genetics at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. Her research provides a bridge between genomics, traits, and the environment to understand how selection has shaped the complex life-histories of tree species, and uses a wide range of tools from field experiments, through statistical modeling, to evolutionary quantitative genetic theory.
Practical information
- General public
- Invitation required
- This event is internal
Organizer
- ENAC
Contact
- Cristina Perez