Ecological Genetics of Plant Adaptations to Novel Environments

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The Anthropocene is marked by several growing threats to global biodiversity, including climate change, large-scale habitat modification, and long-distance translocation of species across major dispersal barriers (e.g. oceans, mountain ranges, deserts). Evolution in these novel environments could prevent extinction and ultimately facilitate range expansion, but contemporary evolution and its effects on ecological dynamics are rarely studied in natural populations exposed to novel environments. My long-term research goal is to understand how and why contemporary evolution occurs in novel environments, and how this influences ecological dynamics. Invasive species threaten human health and welfare but also represent natural' experiments in contemporary evolution. My short-term research plan focuses on two of Canada's most invasive weeds purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). I have developed these experimental systems over the last 10+ years and I will use them to test for a shift in natural selection, adaptive divergence and an increase in individual fitness and population-level performance in North America relative to the native range (Europe). These are key predictions of a number of highly influential hypotheses in invasion biology that have proven difficult to test using traditional approaches in evolutionary ecology. I propose a novel approach that combines cutting-edge advances in next-generation sequencing with coordinated, distributed field studies to collect field data and genetic resources from thousands of individuals at hundreds of locations across Europe and North America. Using this approach I will investigate the effects of local adaptation and invasion history on population genetic structure, and control for these processes in order to make meaningful comparisons of natural selection, evolution and performance between Europe and North America. The proposed research provides training opportunities for 1 PDF, 3PhD, 2 MSc and 13 BSc thesis students in a number of cutting-edge techniques that lie at the interface of modern genomics, computational biology and field ecology. Research on invasive species is generally interesting to hunters and anglers, wildlife enthusiasts, naturalists, gardeners, birders, eco-tourists, ranchers, farmers, and many more. More generally, this research investigates how genotype and environment jointly affect fitness in naturally occurring populations across two continents, representing a significant advance in ecological genomics. Understanding the genetic and environmental basis of ecological success in novel environments will be important not only for reducing the impacts of invasive species but also could improve management of more desirable species (e.g. local crop varieties, endangered species) struggling to persist in the face of rapid global change.