Research Goals:

We are a diverse lab addressing both basic and applied questions in animal systems. Our basic research addresses adaptive capacity of populations using a combination of experimental and observational population genomic approaches. For example, how do we explain apparent local adaptation at surprisingly small geographic scales relative to average dispersal distances? In high fecundity species, how much does early viability selection (phenotype/environment mismatch) shape spatial variation in population fitness and maintain high levels of within-population genetic variation? Our applied questions are diverse, usually collaborative, and often use genetic variation as a marker for occupancy of particular species in an ecosystem. Longstanding research questions include the genetic and fitness consequences of population supplementation using hatcheries, and the pattern and scale of gene flow in coastal marine species. More recently we have been studying the genomic effects of domestication and potential for fitness effects in wild populations interbreeding with domesticates.

Graduate Student Recruiting: