A position is available to conduct research on the long term effects of ocean acidification on scallops over multiple generations to estimate population resiliency and potential for adaptation to near-term and long-term ocean acidification conditions. The researcher will be responsible for contributing to experiments at all life stages (larval to adult) and will lead the genomic analysis to estimate changes in allele frequency to estimate adaptive capacity. The genomic work will include bench work molecular biology techniques to prepare tissue samples for ddRAD sequencing and bioinformatics. This work will require strong bioinformatics skills and proficiency in R and Linux. This research and position have funding for 3 years.

This project has three objectives: 1. Assess the resilience of scallop populations to OA and determine their capacity for adaptation across generations; 2. Assess the robustness of scallop tolerance to combinations of environmental factors, including OA, temperature, and food availability, by quantifying a number of performance metrics, including survivorship, growth, development time, and physiological rates; and 3. Quantify genetic changes in scallops across generations in response to OA, and map those changes to phenotypic responses where possible.

key words

ocean acidification, adaptive capacity, transgenerational plasticity, genomics, ddRADseq, scallops, shellfish

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents and non-U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral and Senior applicants