Objective
The extent, cause and maintenance of biodiversity are among the most important biological issues of our time, yet our knowledge of marine biodiversity remains seriously under-described and understood. Even if we acknowledge that the coastal zones are far better studied, it remains a fact that most of the knowledge about benthic organisms remains in the discovery-descriptive stage. In this context, the integration of systematics, biogeography, demography and population genetics presents a new challenge for ecologists and evolutionary biologists to elucidate the key factors that affect speciation and extinction of populations.
The magnitude of gene flow is a parameter of great evolutionary importance in determining the level and pattern of genetic differentiation of populations and, therefore, the possibility of local adaptation. Studies below the species level are indispensable if we wish to examine the interaction of a species with the environmental parameters that structure the ecosystem.
The overall objective of BIOGAP is to develop specific testable models for gene flow and demography in benthic macro-algae. The coupling of matrix modelling and gene flow is new and will contribute to both theoretical and empirical models from which meaningful projections about ecosystem stability/resilience and the maintenance of biodiversity can be made. Spatial genetic structure and gene flow will be modelled using data from a suite of single-locus DNA markers, microsatellites developed for each of the four target species. Evolutionary demography will be investigated using a matrix modelling approach that accommodates any particular life-history graph, standard vital rate measurements and microsatellite data.
Algal species have been chosen that represent the principal range of seaweed life histories and that are of significant ecological importance along the European coastlines. The partnership members have expertise in population genetics, demography, molecular biology of algae, evolutionary biology, biogeography, phycology, and modelling. All of the partners have played and continue to play pioneering roles in the above areas with respect to marine algae.
The principal aims may be summarised as follows:
I) to establish population genetic models for benthic marine macrophytes (in general) that do not fit standard textbook models-- in particular for ecologically important seaweeds that exhibit different life history types, 2) to develop an understanding of the role of benthic coastal population dynamics from the genetic perspective;
3) to build more comprehensive ecosystem models in which genetically diverse populations that behave in ecologically different ways contribute differentially to stability and resilience;
4) to explore fundamentally genetic diversity in benthic seaweeds in the context of biodiversity -- to examine how different levels of genetic diversity affect or actually drive changes in biodiversity (including the specification o baseline values which are entirely unknown at present).
BIOGAP is a fundamental research project which complies with Research Area A: Marine Science, ( ] ) Marine System Research, Task 6 "Marine Biodiversity issues (gene flow, populations, species and habitat) as a basis for understanding ecosystem structure, dynamics and resilience in the context of sustainable exploitation, conservation and restoration".
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences marine biology
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology phycology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences oceanography
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences physical geography
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
59655 VILLENEUVE D'ASCQ
France
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