Fur seals of South America: are they the sentinels of climate change Integrative analyses and genomics as tools for biodiversity conservation

• Grant number: 23/12707-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Vera Nisaka Solferini
• Grantee: Fernando Ricardo Vieira Lopes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Peruvian fur seal is an endangered pinniped (Vulnerable-VU, according to the IUCN red list of threatened species) recently proposed as a hybrid species that originated around 430 Kya from hybrid homoploid speciation after short periods of genomic introgression between the South American and the Galapagos fur seal. The secondary contact with one of the parental species, the Galapagos fur seal, once recognized as endemic to the Galapagos Islands, was also proposed with genomic analyses. This study also indicates that the Galapagos fur seal may be expanding its rangebeyond the Galapagos Islands and towards the Peruvian coast of South America and the main colony of the Peruvian fur seal. Such a scenario can have as background the recent ocean warming and increasing in frequency and intensity of El Niño events, warranting further investigation. This demographic dynamic can represent: (1) a risk to the Peruvian fur seal as an isolated biological entity since it can homogenize a species with weak reproductive isolation; or (2) a natural solution, if genomic regions introgressed from the secondary contact with the Galapagos fur seal are providing evolutionary advantage through natural selection in the face of climatic changes and/or anomalous climatic events such as El Niño. The main objective of this project is to identify the impact of climate change and anomalous climatic events on the distribution of fur seals in South America and the consequences of the genomic introgressions with a parental species for the future of the threatened Peruvian fur seal. Our proposal lies in the interface of whole genome analyses of samples collected across the entire area of the target species, bioinformatics,and species distribution modeling. With the results generated by this project, we will unravel evolutionary mechanisms underlying the group evolution using cutting-edge genomic tools (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Bayesian models) and predictive species distribution modeling. The findings of this study will have far-reaching implications for society by providing insights into how organisms adapt to changing environments. The outcomes will enable the delineation of more precise strategies for species conservation and management and will help to better predict and mitigate the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. A project funded by the FAPESP means that the applicant will have obtained his own funding, which will certainly be a competitive advantage in the future and will provide an excellent opportunity towards becoming a group leader and an independent scientist. As a new asset, the proponent will expand the nternationalization and networking inside the Department of Biosciences of UNICAMP, by bringing a new line of research for the Department. The host institution and its members will offer a dynamic environment that combined with access to state-of-the-art facilities will broaden the applicant's knowledge and enhance his career. (AU)