Abstract

This research seeks to understand how temperature and salinity changes, ocean acidification, pollution, and other environmental stressors affect the genetic evolution of marine species. Ecological change, especially human-driven change, is rapidly altering the context in which all ecosystems exist. Of all the coping mechanisms marine species have, genetic evolution is the most important. For all the mechanisms we have, identifying and understanding genetic evolution is most important for conserving the ecosystem. This is a multidisciplinary project involving genomics, population genetics, and environmental change and monitoring within and across various marine ecosystems. A meta-analysis was conducted to identify stress-tolerant adaptive genetic loci, complemented by computational model simulations to identify potential genetic changes adaptive to the predicted climate change in the coming decades. It was discovered that specific gene clusters of heat shock proteins, ion transport, and genes regulating metabolic pathways increased variability within species. Adaptive introgression and epigenetic alterations are essential in enhancing resilience. This confirms the hypothesis that environmental stressors have both short-term and long-term effects on evolution. The unique model developed in this research will assist genetic monitoring and conservation planning.

Keywords: Genetic adaptation, Marine species, Environmental stressors, Ocean acidification, Climate change, Population genomics, Resilience