PhD position - Conservation Biology - City University of New York

A position for a PhD student at the Graduate Center, City University of New York  is available through the Conservation Biology laboratory of Dr. Eugenia Naro-Maciel, College of Staten Island, starting Fall 2012. The position includes full tuition, benefits, and a 24K stipend.

Compatible candidates should be interested in investigating relationships among and within species in order to understand patterns and processes of molecular evolution, and to inform conservation strategies. In this laboratory we use a comprehensive analytical approach to population genetics and systematics, and focus on globally endangered sea turtles as well as other marine animals and chelonians. This combination approach allows assignment of individuals to their unknown source populations, reveals relationships and differentiation among groups, and explores genetic variation within groups. This research provides unique insights into temporal and spatial patterns of genetic variation, dispersal, and migration, while enhancing basic biological knowledge of population structure and molecular evolution. By investigating population connectivity, or linkages among groups, and evolutionary history in endangered species, this program advances understanding of central questions in evolution and conservation biology.

 To fill this position the student must be accepted to the CUNY Graduate Center (please click to see information for prospective students: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/prospective_students/index.htm).

 Interested students are requested to email a cv and cover letter, including research interests, GRE scores, and grades to Eugenia.NaroMaciel@csi.cuny.edu

POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE

Protected areas form the cornerstone for conservation planning worldwide; however, protecting an area does not automatically achieve conservation outcomes. Sea turtles and other highly migratory organisms protected in one area may face threats when moving to other localities. Understanding the linkages between groups in protected areas and outside them is key to effective conservation. We are therefore investigating the population distribution of highly migratory sea turtles throughout the world’s oceans (Naro-Maciel and Fomia 2006; Naro-Maciel et al. 2007; Caraccio et al. 2008; Monzon-Arguello et al. 2010). Identifying migratory connections is particularly challenging in the case of highly migratory organisms such as sea turtles, which spend much of their lives hidden from view moving throughout the oceans. We are using genetic analysis to understand the connections between sea turtle populations. By determining the unknown linkages between feeding grounds and other regional breeding or feeding sites, we will better understand the range of these turtles, identify regional management partners, and determine conservation priorities.                                                                                                       

 DNA BARCODING

DNA barcoding is a global initiative that provides a standardized and efficient tool to catalogue and inventory biodiversity, with significant conservation applications (http://www.barcoding.si.edu/whatis.html).  To obtain DNA barcodes of marine turtles, we sequenced a segment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene from eighty turtles of all seven species in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins.  To further investigate genetic variation, we sequenced green turtles (Chelonia mydas) from nine additional Atlantic/Mediterranean nesting areas and from the Eastern Pacific.  We established character-based DNA barcodes for each species using unique combinations of character states. DNA barcoding of marine turtles is a powerful tool for species identification and wildlife forensics, which also provides complementary data for conservation genetic research (Naro-Maciel et al. 2010). The project has been expanded to include DNA barcodes for other threatened turtles listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened species (Reid et al. 2011), and spiny lobsters (Naro-Maciel et al. 2011). Future efforts will focus on urban barcoding including at Freshkills Park, site of the former Staten Island Landfill.

 EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS

Marine chelonians have inhabited the earth for over 100 million years (Hirayama, 1998). To address the lingering controversies and to recover a definitive marine turtle phylogeny, we sequenced five nuclear DNA markers and two mitochondrial genes in the seven widely recognized marine turtle species, the taxonomically ambiguous Eastern Pacific green turtle, and four outgroups. Using this approach we tested hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships of marine turtles, including the placement of the geographically restricted flatback turtle, and the origin of the rare spongivorous dietary habit of hawksbill turtles. Our phylogenetic results differ from those recovered in previous molecular studies by strongly supporting a sister-taxon relationship between the flatback (Natator depressus) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas). This phylogenetic study provides a foundation for more detailed research in evolutionary biology, clarifies systematic issues of these highly threatened species, and significantly contributes to the resolution of the “turtle tree of life” (Naro-Maciel et al. 2008). Our next project focuses on the phylogenetic relationships of Chelid turtles as revealed by multiple genetic markers. Currently, there is no definitive phylogenetic hypothesis available for the speciose and diverse Chelidae family.

 CONSERVATION GENOMICS

The lab is interested in expanding into conservation genomics and bioinformatics, utilizing CSI's supercomputers at the High Performance Computing Center (HPCC; http://www.csi.cuny.edu/cunyhpc/)