Conservation Palaeogenetics & Palaeoecology Group

We are amid the sixth mass extinction and funds for combating it are limited. Consequently, there is a pressing need to maintain and enhance the resilience of species and ecosystems to environmental change. However, much of the genetic diversity underpinning this resilience has been lost over the past decades, centuries, and millennia due to human impacts. Ancient genomics allows us to track biological responses to past climatic and anthropogenic changes, from genes to populations to ecological communities. This approach represents a powerful new way to recover ‘lost’ genetic diversity relevant to preserving Earth’s contemporary biodiversity into the future.

Our research centres around two questions: What is the genetic basis of resilience to environmental stressors, and how can it be used to guide conservation and restoration of biodiversity? To answer these questions, we use ancient genomic methods in tandem with other palaeo techniques, experimental approaches, and observational data, in close collaboration with academic colleagues and other partners from across the globe. The overarching aim is to uncover genetic underpinning of favourable phenotypic responses to the environmental stressors projected to amplify in the coming decades. To maximise the impact of our research efforts, we focus on threatened keystone species from globally important ecosystems.