3-yr PhD position in ecology, phylogeography and landscape genetics
Title
Incorporating Phylogeographic infOrmation into niche moDels to improve species re-distribution projections under climAte waRming and habitat fragmentation: the Case of forest-dwelling specIes across European agricultural landscapeS [PODARCIS]
Aim
Climate warming and habitat fragmentation are two key components of global change that push species to redistribute or evolve to adapt to the new conditions (Lenoir & Svenning, 2015; Pecl et al., 2017). To hindcast and forecast species redistribution under past and future environmental conditions, respectively, the state-of-the-art is to use species distribution models (SDMs) (Guisan & Zimmermann, 2000). However, traditional SDMs assume that individuals from all populations of a given species respond equally to environmental changes although different populations from the same species may respond differently to environmental changes (Valladares et al., 2014). The most recent scientific literature on SDMs suggests that incorporating intraspecific variation into SDMs leads to less pessimistic redistribution projections (Pearman et al., 2010; Oney et al., 2013). Both phylogeography (Guiller & Madec, 2010; Guiller et al., 2012) and landscape genetics can provide spatially and temporally explicit information on the genetic structure and differences among populations of the same species that could be used to incorporate intraspecific variation into SDMs and thus improve redistribution projections under climate change. This PhD project entitled PODARCIS specifically aims at incorporating intraspecific variation data obtained from a union of phylogeography and landscape genetics (Rissler, 2016) into SDMs. PODARCIS is part of the EU (BiodivERsA) project Woodnet and the regional (Hauts-de-France) project Pegase. Three model species of European temperate forests will be studied throughout the PhD project: the plants Geum urbanum and Oxalis acetosella characterized by different dispersal capacities as well as the tick Idoxes ricinus considered as the main vector of the Lyme Borreliosis in Western Europe and thus implying potential public health hazards. PODARCIS rests on three basic pillars:
- Phylogeography and historical demography to determine the phylogeographic structure of each species and to disentangle the relative impacts of past versus current climatic changes in shaping the geographic distributions of genealogical lineages;
- Fundamental ecology to develop SDMs adapted to each genealogical lineage and to compare these lineage-specific SDMs to classical SDMs at different periods (Pleistocene and Anthropocene);
- Landscape genetics to identify landscape and environmental features that constrain genetic connectivity and thus to account for dispersal and gene flow across the landscape.
Keywords
Climate change, ecoepidemiology, forest ecosystems, landscape genetics, phylogeography, population genetics, spatial statistics, species distribution modelling
Qualifications
The candidate is expected to have good training in statistics or mathematical modelling and have a strong background in ecology or evolutionary biology (population genetics and phylogeography). Typical PhD candidates will have a master degree in ecology or evolutionary biology. Basic knowledge and interest in ecology and landscape genetics is required. Experience in molecular genetics and GIS knowledge will be further appreciated. Programming skills in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) such as in the R and GRASS environments will be a clear advantage. Teamwork skills, curiosity, autonomy at work as well as good oral and written communication skills in English will also be valued.
Supervision
The student will be hosted within the research unit EDYSAN (Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés, FRE 3498 CNRS – UPJV, head Prof. Guillaume Decocq), 33 rue Saint Leu, 80000 Amiens, France. EDYSAN is a young, diverse, vibrant and international research community with strong collaborative interdisciplinary ties within and beyond Amiens.
Main supervisor: Annie Guiller, (Professor), annie.guiller@u-picardie.fr, 03 22 82 75 76
Cosupervisor: Jonathan Lenoir (Associate Professor), jonathan.lenoir@u-picardie.fr, 03 22 82 54 67
Application
Applications (letter, CV and 2 contacts for references) should be sent to Annie Guiller, Jonathan Lenoir and Guillaume Decocq (guillaume.decocq@u-picardie.fr) no later than May 31. The selected candidate will have an audition with the Doctoral Department at UPJV (Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens) in the beginning of July and, if successful, will start in September 2017.
References
Guiller & Madec (2010). Historical biogeography of the land snail Cornu aspersum: a new scenario inferred from haplotype distribution in the Western Mediterranean Basin. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 10: 18
Guiller et al. (2012) Tracing the invasion of the Mediterranean land snail Cornu aspersum aspersum becoming an agricultural and garden pest in areas recently introduced. PLoS ONE, 7: e49674
Guisan & Zimmermann (2000) Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological Modelling, 135: 147–186
Lenoir & Svenning (2015). Climate-related range shifts – a global multidimensional synthesis and new research directions. Ecography, 38: 15–28
Oney et al. (2013). Intraspecific variation buffers projected climate change impacts on Pinus contorta. Ecology and Evolution, 3: 437–449
Pearman et al. (2010). Within-taxon niche structure: niche conservatism, divergence and predicted effects of climate change. Ecography, 33: 990–1003
Pecl et al. (2017). Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human well-being. Science, 355: eaai9214
Rissler (2016). Union of phylogeography and landscape genetics. PNAS, 113: 8079–8086
Valladares et al. (2014). The effects of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation on forecasts of species range shifts under climate change. Ecology Letters, 17: 1351–1364