Research opportunities

Population monitoring

Sea mammals are under increasing pressure of climate change, and habitat reduction. Furthermore, harbour porpoises and seals are exposed to the direct and indirect impacts of commercial fisheries (e.g., bycatch and resource competition), which can have a substantial impact on population densities and demographic recovery.

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Using DNA samples retrieved from by-caught or stranded individuals and whole-genome-sequencing approaches provide the best opportunity to delineate subpopulations, infer individual movements and identify geographical areas at highest risk of conflict with fisheries.

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The Unit for Population Analysis and Monitoring has a strong interest in health and genetic monitoring marine mammals, but also focuses on yearly genetic monitoring of bears and on arctic foxes, thus offering various avenues to study iconic Scandinavian mammals both on land and in the Baltic Sea.

Marine birds population genomics

Marine birds congregate in colonies which can number thousands of individuals during the breeding season. Individual birds generally show high preference to their birth site (i.e., philopatry) and tend to return to their breeding colony year after year. However, dispersal of young individuals is also essential to guarantee gene flow and maintenance of genetic variation at the level of a metapopulation.

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With increasing human pressure and sea warming, decline in food resource and spread of pathogens can trigger population fragmentation, significant colony declines and even extinctions.

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Genomic approaches are crucial to guide conservation efforts as genomic data allow to quantify gene flow among colonies, assess overall maintenance of genetic diversity, identify patterns adaptation and estimate indices of genome erosion. Furthermore, genome-informed simulations can help predict future evolutionary patterns, even without empirical genetic data and are thus a invaluable tool for conservation genomics.