Evolution in Wild Populations: Determinants of Fitness and Environmental Change Responses of Spotted Hyenas

 
This project combines long-term demographic data with genomic data from spotted hyenas in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, to study fitness, biological responses to environmental change, and their impact on population dynamics. Using the 3RADseq method, around 30,000 SNPs were generated for about 1,200 individuals to investigate these evolutionary processes.
Project details
Duration: 2022 - present
Third-party funded: Yes (partially)
Involved Department(s): Dept Evolutionary Genetics
Leibniz-IZW Project Leader(s):
Leibniz-IZW Project Team:
Larissa Arantes, Oliver Höner, Camila Mazzoni
Consortium Partner(s): University of Edinburgh (Scotland)
Current Funding Organisation: European Research Council (ERC)
Research Foci: ●    Understanding traits and evolutionary adaptations
●    Developing theories, methods, and tools
●    Understanding wildlife health and disturbed homeostasis

 

Rapid environmental change is affecting natural populations globally. This constitutes both an urgent concern, and also an opportunity to understand how environmental change shapes evolutionary and ecological responses. Focusing on the spotted hyenas inhabiting Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, we will combine the long-term demographic data with genomic data to investigate (1) what determines fitness, (2) how persistent distinct biological responses are to environmental change, and (3) what the consequences are for population dynamics in the wild. Using the 3RADseq method, around 30,000 SNPs were generated for about 1,200 individuals to investigate these evolutionary processes.

Selected Publications

Arantes L.S. et al. 2023. Scaling-up RADseq methods for large datasets of non-invasive samples: Lessons for library construction and data preprocessing. doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13859