Leveraging temporal genomics and physiology to understand rapid responses to environment fluctuation in a Baltic invertebrate

• Applicant: Dr. Jennifer Catherine Nascimento Schulze
• Subject Area: Evolution, Anthropology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 543808135

Organisms unavoidably face environmental heterogeneity throughout their lifetimes, across time or space. Adaptive tracking, the ability of species to rapidly adapt to continuous environmental change, is an important mechanism facilitating tolerance to rapid environmental fluctuation. This process allows organisms to cope with environmental fluctuation that can negatively impact fitness. In the light of climate change, understanding how species and natural populations respond to rapid environmental changes on a genomic level has gained significance. However, we still do not fully understand the implications of adaptive tracking on genetic diversity of wild populations, the environmental factors that drive this process, and the underlying physiological processes. These gaps are particularly unexplored in non-model, ecologically relevant species, who’s resilience is critical for continued ecosystem functioning under global change. In the proposed project I aim to explore how adaptive tracking ongoing on a natural population of the copepod Eurytemora affinis in the Baltic Sea contributes to its resilience to rapid environmental change on a genomic and phenotypic level. In Objective 1, I will leverage historical genomic data to determine the presence of adaptive tracking across a 13-year dataset of E. affinis. I will identify adaptive tracking by examining consistent changes in allele frequencies across seasons and years, contributing valuable empirical evidence to the understanding of adaptive tracking and its impact on genetic variation in non-model species. In objective 2, I will assess the phenotypic consequences of adaptive tracking in E. affinis. I will common-garden multiple collections of this taxa sampled across a year to determine the physiological and phenotypic traits evolving across seasons. These traits will include life-history characteristics (e.g. growth, reproductive output), in addition to physiological processes (metabolic rates, feeding rates and transcriptomics). The link between the outcome of both objectives will provide important insights into how rapid genomic changes can influence phenotypes of populations. E. affinis is an ideal model to address these questions. These copepods have multiple generations per year, allowing to investigate the implications of fluctuating environment across seasons. This species is easily collected in the field and cultured in the lab, enabling multi-generational experiments. Finally, I will be hosted by Dr. Reid Brennan, who brings experience on copepod culturing and genomics and has developed physiological assays alongside my second mentor, Dr. Meike Stumpp, which ensures that the methods described will be successful to address the aims of the proposal. The insights gained with this project will contribute to the fields of evolutionary biology, ecophysiology, and will be valuable for industries such as fisheries and aquaculture, considering the critical role copepods play in marine ecosystems

• DFG Programme: WBP Position