ENAC Seminar Series by Dr Y. Liu
Event details
| Date | 19.05.2021 |
| Hour | 16:00 › 16:45 |
| Speaker | Dr Yang Liu |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
16:00 – 16:45 – Dr Y. Liu
Postdoc at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Genomic and phenotypic prediction of climate adaptation in forest trees
Anthropogenic climate change is causing widespread maladaptation in natural ecosystems and poses a potent threat to global biodiversity. Geographic distributions of about 50% of plant and animal species surveyed are already shrinking. The implication of this is that genetic diversity within species is progressively being lost before species go extinct. That said, there must be many species that are becoming genetically depauperate, leading to the global gene pool decaying faster than the loss of species. Therefore, combining genomic and climatic data provides an avenue for assessing putative genetic maladaptation of populations to climate change, eventually in the hopes of enhancing conservation and ecosystem restoration efforts. My research program broadly pursues questions in how populations of forest trees respond to environmental variation at the evolutionary scale and how we can apply population genomics to the conservation of forest plant diversity. This talk focuses on two key areas of my research based on a space-for-time analysis: (1) how can we forecast genomic vulnerability under future climatic scenarios; and (2) how are the adaptability and evolvability of phenotypes altering in a changing climate?
Short bio:
Dr. Liu is an evolutionary geneticist. He completed a Master degree at Chinese Academy of Sciences and then earned a PhD degree from the University of British Columbia. During his PhD, he joined Sorbonne University for one year for a theoretical modeling project. Since 2017, he has begun postdoc research, appointed jointly by University of British Columbia and University of Alberta. Dr. Liu’ research covers multiple topics, including genetics and molecular biology, ecological modeling, epigenetics and bioinformatics, quantitative genomics and evolution. By using multidisciplinary approaches, Liu’s research aims at understanding the demographic, ecological, and genetic mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation in plants, with an emphasis on forest trees, and how those adaptations contribute to the formation of new populations and/or species.
Postdoc at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Genomic and phenotypic prediction of climate adaptation in forest trees
Anthropogenic climate change is causing widespread maladaptation in natural ecosystems and poses a potent threat to global biodiversity. Geographic distributions of about 50% of plant and animal species surveyed are already shrinking. The implication of this is that genetic diversity within species is progressively being lost before species go extinct. That said, there must be many species that are becoming genetically depauperate, leading to the global gene pool decaying faster than the loss of species. Therefore, combining genomic and climatic data provides an avenue for assessing putative genetic maladaptation of populations to climate change, eventually in the hopes of enhancing conservation and ecosystem restoration efforts. My research program broadly pursues questions in how populations of forest trees respond to environmental variation at the evolutionary scale and how we can apply population genomics to the conservation of forest plant diversity. This talk focuses on two key areas of my research based on a space-for-time analysis: (1) how can we forecast genomic vulnerability under future climatic scenarios; and (2) how are the adaptability and evolvability of phenotypes altering in a changing climate?
Short bio:
Dr. Liu is an evolutionary geneticist. He completed a Master degree at Chinese Academy of Sciences and then earned a PhD degree from the University of British Columbia. During his PhD, he joined Sorbonne University for one year for a theoretical modeling project. Since 2017, he has begun postdoc research, appointed jointly by University of British Columbia and University of Alberta. Dr. Liu’ research covers multiple topics, including genetics and molecular biology, ecological modeling, epigenetics and bioinformatics, quantitative genomics and evolution. By using multidisciplinary approaches, Liu’s research aims at understanding the demographic, ecological, and genetic mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation in plants, with an emphasis on forest trees, and how those adaptations contribute to the formation of new populations and/or species.
Practical information
- General public
- Invitation required
- This event is internal
Organizer
- ENAC
Contact
- Cristina Perez