Achievement

IGERT Trainee Hannah Owens received an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement grant for her proposal, Niche Evolution in Gadine Fishes. The aim of this study is to develop a better understanding of the complex processes by which the geographic distributions of fish in the subfamily Gadinae respond to changes in their environment. Gadinae is a group of marine fish that includes several species of great economic importance (e.g. Alaska pollock, Atlantic cod, Pacific cod), which has already displayed some evidence of range alteration as a result of climate change. By integrating information on the genetic relationships among gadine fishes, their distributions, and climate data, this study will reconstruct the evolution of suitable habitat characteristics for the group.