ABSTRACT: Untangling the interaction between genotype, environment, and phenotype represents a central goal of evolutionary biology, yet a comprehensive understanding of the relative influence of each remains elusive, especially in non-model systems. My research uses several approaches for investigating the multiple sources of variation that can impact observed phenotypic traits. I highlight how functional traits impacting dispersal ability in Caribbean mangrove species, when coupled with spatially explicit ocean current data, can lead to crucial insights about how genetic variation was shaped by the environment. Especially in periods of rapid climate change, environmental pressures can impact the adaptive nature of traits, and in some cases, adaptive variation can transcend species boundaries. Using a case of recent (i.e., Pleistocene) hybridization in montane sedges, I illustrate how genotype-environment association analyses identify adaptive loci with respect to environmental gradients that overwhelmingly correspond to loci with excess ancestry from one parental lineage. Digitized museum specimens may represent an efficient way to study the interaction of genome, phenome, and environment; I propose an analytical framework for explicitly quantifying the covariation of genomic, phenotypic, and environmental data from thousands of conspecific specimens.

SPEAKER'S WEBSITE: https://richiehodel.com/