 |
|
Contact:
Metapopulation Research Group Department of Biosciences PO Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1) FI-00014 University of Helsinki FINLAND phone +358 9 1911 (Exchange) firstname.lastname(at)helsinki.fi Comments on the pages to
Watch the video of the brave explorers from MRG on Madagascar! |
 |
Profile After spending a two-year post doc in the lab of Prof. Paul Brakefield at the Leiden University, the Netherlands, I rejoined the Metapopulation Research Group in January 2010. I completed my PhD on dispersal and life-history evolution in the Glanville fritillary butterfly under supervision of Prof. Ilkka Hanski in the MRG at the end of 2007. In Leiden my research focused on the effects of individual condition on cost of dispersal, as well as how early-life conditions shape the adult life history in the tropical butterfly Bicyclus anynana. The main aim of my current post doc in the MRG is to understand the possible strategies and genetic mechanisms that are involved in coping with environmental stress, such as food limitation, in the Glanville fritillary butterfly. Research Organisms in the wild are constantly faced with a wide range of environmental change, varying from short-term alteration in, for example, resource availability during individual’s lifetime, to longer-term changes across generations. Severity, frequency, and unpredictability of environmental change has increased dramatically in recent years due to human caused phenomena, such as habitat fragmentation and climate change. Even though the ability to sense, cope with or even adapt to environmental variation and/or stress is essential for the survival of individuals and populations, we still know little about the variation in the possible strategies and genetic mechanisms involved in such processes, especially in wild populations. During my PhD, I studied the role of spatial population structure (fragmentation) on the evolution of dispersal and related life-history traits in the Glanville fritillary butterfly. Previous studies have shown that dispersal ability is heritable and linked with allelic variation in a metabolic gene Pgi. According to life-history theory, individual strategies and reproductive decisions should be adapted to environmental conditions as well as individual’s intrinsic properties. Therefore, it is predicted that individuals may evolve an ability to perceive differences in the environmental conditions and rely on such cues in their life history “decisions”. In my current research, I am focusing on understanding how plastic these different life history traits, including dispersal, actually are, and whether under some circumstances environmental conditions experienced during development may shape individual’s phenotypes so that it is better prepared for environmental conditions it will encounter later on its life (predictive-adaptive response). In my research I combine approaches from ecology, physiology and genetics. |
