Postdoctoral Fellowship: OPP-PRF: Exploration of How Historical Climate Events Impacted Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus) Evolution and Fishery Use

University Of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman OK

Investigators

Abstract

Pacific cod has historically been and continues to be an extremely important economic resource for coastal communities. However, the world’s oceans are experiencing rapid warming events that have already negatively impacted fish and fisheries. This research explores how two historical climate events, the Medieval Warming Event and the Little Ice Age, affected Pacific cod populations in the past and influenced their evolution. The project employs zooarchaeological specimens, historical records, and environmental data to track the evolution of Pacific cod and how coastal communities used this resource throughout the last two thousand years. This work will be done in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, who may use these findings to inform management decisions of modern-day Pacific cod. This project will train an undergraduate student recruited through the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program in bioinformatics and molecular laboratory techniques, bring evolution education to high school students through an outreach activity using simulations, and conduct additional outreach to K-12 students at Bering Sea Days on St. Paul Island, Alaska. Findings from this research will be shared via conference presentations, peer-reviewed articles, and presentations to Alaska communities. The research investigate how two late Holocene climatic events affected Pacific cod populations. The project tests the hypothesis that climatic events caused significant population declines followed by population recovery, evidenced by loss of genetic diversity, increased genomic adaptation, trophic-level shifts, and variation in the seasonality of fishery use. The PI will use a multidisciplinary approach, combining zooarchaeological, archaeogenomic, and isotopic data from Pacific cod bones excavated from three archaeological sites in the North Pacific. The work will 1) characterize population genomic changes over time; 2) identify signatures of selection in response to historical climatic events, and compare them to modern genomic adaptations; 3) identify whether past climatic events caused trophic-level evolution; and 4) compare and contrast the seasonality of fishery use through time. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.