Abstract
Fitness is the currency of natural selection. Unraveling its genetic basis within and between natural populations will ultimately help in understanding the potential and constraints of species to evolve and adapt to changing environments. The recent revolution in sequencing technology has opened the opportunity to generate the genomic information necessary to study the architecture of fitness and traits under selection in any organism. The Galápagos archipelago provides a unique setting to investigate eco-evolutionary dynamics in a closed but changing environment. We here propose an interdisciplinary study that pioneers in integrating a genomic perspective into behavioural, ecological, evolutionary and conservation research. A long-standing research history on an endangered keystone predator species, the endemic Galápagos sea lion, puts us into the position to combine large-scale genomic resources with a wealth of ecological, behavioural and life history data. By combining population data from across the species range with an in depth study from a long-term monitoring effort within a single population we expect novel insights into the consequences of an individual´s genotypic constitution on fitness and adaptation. The project has great potential for public outreach, will help conservation practitioners in the Galápagos to guide their efforts and can be viewed as a conservation genomic case study assessing the genomic diversity and adaptability of vulnerable species.
Sweden