Descripción del proyecto
Osos de las cavernas: pruebas sobre las causas de su extinción
Los osos de las cavernas habitaron Europa y Asia hace miles de años. El proyecto RESOURCEFUL, financiado con fondos europeos, se centrará en dichas especies prehistóricas de oso e investigará el efecto de la interacción entre el comportamiento y la estructura de la población sobre el riesgo de extinción en especies que dependen de recursos geográficamente fijos. Para ello, combinará la modelización teórica de la población con la paleogenómica. La labor del proyecto conducirá al desarrollo de un modelo computacional espacialmente explícito sobre las poblaciones de oso de las cavernas y a una muestra a nivel de la población relativa a los genomas de los osos de las cavernas rumanos contemporáneos. De este modo, se contribuirá a allanar el camino para lograr una mejor comprensión de los efectos de la competición humana por las cuevas en la extinción de los osos de las cavernas.
Objetivo
This MSC Action will investigate the interplay of behaviour, climate, and human pressure on species extinction, using a highly interdisciplinary approach uniting theoretical population modelling with palaeogenomics. This MSC Action will investigate the interplay of behaviour and population structure on extinction risk in species that rely on geographically fixed resources. It will focus on long extinct cave bears by utilising a highly interdisciplinary approach uniting theoretical population modelling with palaeogenomics to test the causes of their extinction. The host organisation, Prof. Manicas UCAM Group, is a world-leading research group in population genetics and modelling. I will be provided with training and development opportunities that allow me to build a spatially explicit computational model of cave bear populations that use multiple caves for hibernation. Development of my existing knowledge of palaeogenomics during secondment in Dr. Barlows TNTU Lab will allow me to assemble a population level sample of contemporaneous Romanian cave bear genomes to further refine the model based on empirical data. Finally, this refined cave bear population model will allow, for the first time, a detailed and statistically robust assessment of the effect of human competition for caves on cave bear extinction. This MSC Action provides numerous opportunities for my training and personal development, by locating myself in the world-leading UCAM Group, attendance of five formal training courses, and further opportunities during the secondment and visits to other labs. It will result in internationally significant research outputs that will be disseminated to the scientific community via publications and presentations, as well as to different target audiences via public engagement, media and teaching activities. Moreover, it will provide numerous vital steps towards my ultimate career goal of establishing a world-leading research group within the field of palaeogenomics
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Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Reino Unido