HOW (WILL) ECTOTHERMS COPE WITH CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS? A TEST WITH A UNIQUE MODEL ORGANISM UNDER CONTRASTING ECOLOGICAL PRESSURES

STUDENT SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

How species cope with global environmental change is a major topic in evolutionary biology. Predicting such biological responses (either plastic or adaptive) to climate change is crucial for planning realistic conservation strategies. However, disentangling the complex ecological context behind life response to change is challenging. In this context organismal responses to extreme environmental spatial gradients can be used as a proxy for temporal shifts induced by climate change. In this seminar I present my PhD thesis plan of a multidisciplinary approach integrating physiological (metabolic potential activity, thermal optimum, hydric loss, telomere relative length) and genomic (whole-genome sequencing) data to examine short and long-term responses to environmental changes using Gallotia galloti, an insular lizard abundant over a 3600 metres altitudinal cline in the Island of Tenerife. I will describe the experimental design of two field expeditions conducted so far (2017 and 2018), and the preliminary results obtained from several sources of evidence including ecophysiological experiments, skeletochronological analysis to assess the age of the wild caught individuals, relative telomere length obtained from blood samples, and several biochemical measurements of metabolic potential.

Nina Serén holds a MSc in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution, from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. She is currently enrolled in the second year of the BIODIV PhD programme, working under the supervision of Miguel A. Carretero (CIBIO-InBIO), Catarina Pinho (CIBIO-InBIO) and Anamarija Žagar (National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana). Nina is also a member of the FBIO group.

[Host: Miguel Carretero, Functional Biodiversity]

Image credits: Nina Serén