Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Migration is a complex behaviour that evolved independently and repeatedly across the animal kingdom and is vitally important in shaping population dynamics and ecosystem processes. However, migration events have started to disappear primarily due to climate change and other anthropogenic factors. This has led to an urgency to understand the internal drivers of migration, with an emphasis on genomic architecture and physiological mechanisms. The goal of such assessments is to evaluate whether populations can cope with anthropogenic and environmental changes to their migratory routes.

Numerous adaptations are required for migration and clear patterns of inheritance and a genetic underpinning have been demonstrated. My DG program aims to undercover the drivers of migration by focussing on a unique suite of ungulates (moose, mule deer, and mountain goat) that exhibit a range of migratory behaviour. The feasibility of my program is reflected in already having multi-year GPS tracking data and frozen tissue. The GPS location data will be used to determine individual migration patterns (timing, destination, and habitat selection) that will be quantitatively linked to genomic and physiological variation.

Using a suite of novel genomic library preparation techniques and sequencing strategies, we will test the hypothesis that a few genes of large effect are involved in shaping divergent migratory behaviours. Newly developed assays will test for methylation (i.e. turning genes off and on) involvement in migratory behaviour, while selection on the mitochondrial genome will be linked to mitochondrial respiration rates to collectively test the ‘migration-adapted mitochondrion’ hypothesis. Using comparative genomics and meta-analyses we will test for a common genomic architecture to migratory behaviour. Finally, the long-term vision of my DG is to develop an empirically-based framework that infers the demographic impact of changing environments; this will be achieved by temporal modelling of migratory habitat and quantitatively linking shifts in habitat to inferred changes in effective population size and other demographic parameters.

Holistically linking genomic, epigenetic, and respiration patterns to divergent migratory behaviour will provide ground-breaking advances in movement ecology and wildlife genetic research. The innovative merger of traditionally disparate data streams can be applied to terrestrial and marine systems, thereby advancing basic research on multiple fronts. There is a direct impact to ungulate conservation and management in determining how hard-wired migratory behaviours are, and assessing the demographic impact of altered migration habitat. I anticipate training 10 HQP (5 grad; 5 undergrad) in cutting-edge genomics, bioinformatics, and modelling techniques. These skills are highly transferrable and in demand in the growing Canadian bio-economy.