Project
Are edge populations of ferns viable sources for founding new populations under global climate change?Climate change is progressing at a rapid rate and as temperatures rise it is expected that many species may migrate towards higher latitudes. With this migration, populations at the margin of the range will act as a source of propagules for the establishment of new range edge populations. Understanding the genetic characteristics of these marginal populations is crucial for predicting their success in establishing new populations. Range edge populations are often smaller and more spatially dispersed in comparison to core populations which may contribute to these isolated populations experiencing elevated genetic load. This can be due to particular deleterious mutations becoming fixed at a specific genetic loci, making them the only variant and thus a population with low “genetic health”. Additionally, higher amounts of segregating load may be present in small populations, leading to inbreeding depression in edge versus core populations. In both possible cases, these small populations thus may have an overall decrease in fitness, making them less likely to be viable sources of new populations under changing environmental conditions. The proposed research aims to explore the genetic characteristics that edge populations face with respect to their viability as a source of range expansion and identify effective strategies for mitigating potential genetic load, ensuring the successful establishment of new and healthy populations.
