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SUMMARY:ENAC Seminar Series by Dr D. Leigh
DTSTART:20210520T090000
DTEND:20210520T094500
DTSTAMP:20260528T073900Z
UID:fca4f3fb59b3d35096ed4ea8b706547c49785e55a215c608edd5e13e
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Deborah Leigh\n09:00 – 09:45 – Dr D. Leigh\nPostdoctora
 l Fellow at Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL\, CH\n\nMacrogenetics and
  detecting environmental adaptation\n\nGenetic diversity is the foundation
  of adaptation and adaptive potential\, making it integral to any species
 ’ response to climate change. It is also a core component of biodiversit
 y and underpins ecosystem resilience. Yet the limited monitoring and mappi
 ng of genetic diversity has left many open questions. We are still mapping
  global genetic diversity patterns and searching for the factors that driv
 e these across species. These knowledge gaps limit our ability to monitor 
 genetic diversity\, protect biodiversity\, and forecast future change.\nTh
 e new field of macrogenetics\, large-scale multispecies studies of genetic
  diversity\, has great power to address these open questions. For example\
 , in a recent macrogenetic study I was able to provide the first estimate 
 of global genetic diversity change in wild species and found a significant
  6% decline since the industrial revolution. In the future\, by combining 
 macrogenetics with genomics we can both expand our understanding of geneti
 c diversity and explore multispecies adaptive responses to climate change.
  However\, identifying adaptation in wild species remains complex and the 
 difficulties are exacerbated by genetic drift in declining populations. In
  recently bottlenecked populations of Alpine ibex\, through simulations I 
 found a worrying ‘catch-22’ situation where recent adaptation could no
 t be accurately confirmed or denied. As many wild populations are declinin
 g\, we must continue to evaluate the power of genomic selection detection 
 methods (‘outlier scans’) to ensure an accurate understanding of adapt
 ation. This will facilitate the evolutionary management of wild species\, 
 ensure genetic diversity conservation\, thus helping to mitigate the effec
 ts of global climate change on biodiversity.\n\nShort bio:\nDr Leigh is a 
 question driven conservation genomicist. Her research interests fall at in
 tersection of evolutionary and conservation biology. She is particularly f
 ocused on expanding our understanding and protection of genetic diversity 
 through macrogenetics. She is also interested in studying the adaptive pro
 cesses in complex non-equilibrium populations\, including those that are d
 eclining or bottlenecked\, to help improve species management. She is curr
 ently a Postdoctoral researcher at WSL Zurich (Switzerland) studying the s
 tructure of intra-host populations of an RNA mycovirus used for biocontrol
 . Prior to this\, she completed a Postdoctoral position at Queen’s Unive
 rsity (Canada) in collaboration with Environment Climate Change Canada stu
 dying Arctic Seabirds. In 2017\, she completed my PhD in the Conservation 
 Genomics of the Alpine ibex at the University of Zurich. On my days off\, 
 she is a keen coffee drinker and enjoy hiking in the Alps.
LOCATION:https://epfl.zoom.us/j/61045661164
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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