Abstract
I apply for a project grant to study the influence of environmental change on the dynamics of genetic architecture of populations and the complex interplay of population dynamics and population genetics. I will use colour polymorphism in pygmy grasshoppers as a model system. I will combine information on colour morph frequencies (co-adapted trait-value combinations that are moulded by natural selection) with estimates of selectively neutral genetic diversity (as obtained with molecular techniques) in natural and experimentally manipulated populations to examine: (1) How disturbance events and environmental change influence adaptive and neutral genetic variation of populations; (2) If the level of genetic diversity is greater in populations that inhabit disturbed and changing environments, as compared with populations in relatively stable environments; (3) If founder events and bottlenecks differently influence adaptive and neutral genetic diversity; and (4) The relative importance of propagule size and propagule diversity for the dynamics and persistence of populations. The questions under investigation in this project are fundamental within ecological and evolutionary biology research, and of considerable relevance for applied conservation biology and agriculture.
Sweden