The importance of inbreeding and drift in conservation of subdivided populations
Informations
- Funding country
Norway- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 1/1/2020
- End date
- 12/31/2024
- Budget
- 1,475,385 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRIMEDBIO - Independent projects - Medicine, Health Sciences and Biology | Grant | - | - | 1,475,385 EUR |
Abstract
In conservation biology we still lack the information needed to properly evaluate genetic risks of population extinction. Specifically, we need a better understanding of how population fragmentation, fluctuations in population sizes, inbreeding depression and loss of genetic variation affect population viability. Our study populations of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) at the coast of northern Norway represent a study system well suited to improve our understanding of how inbreeding depression and loss of genetic variation may affect the growth and viability of small and fragmented populations. Our work will be divided into five interconnected work packages (WPs). WP 1 will start by combining genomic analyses of inbreeding and loss of genetic variation with high-quality ecological data to study reasons for why the level of inbreeding and rate of loss of genetic variation vary between populations and years. Next, we will quantify how much spatial and temporal variation there is in the negative effects that inbreeding and loss of genetic variation have on reproduction and survival (fitness), and investigate the reasons for such variation. In WP 2 we will explore the genetic basis for negative fitness effects of inbreeding and loss of genetic variation. We will then follow up these results in WP 3 by using data from large-scale experiments in three natural populations to examine fitness effects of changes in allele and genotype frequencies at putative candidate genes found in WP 2. Next, how inbreeding and loss of genetic variation reduce ability to adapt to any changes in the environmental will be examined in WP 4. Finally, in WP 5 we will use results from WP 1-4 as input in statistical models and simulations to evaluate the importance of genetic processes for the growth and viability of fragmented populations.