Small pelagic fish species are of high commercial importance, and are crucial to food security worldwide. Such fish often comprise migrating stocks that mix with other stocks, making their sustainable management challenging, particularly under conditions of regional overexploitation and climate change. Genome sequencing has made it possible to identify subtle and biologically meaningful stock structure. For instance, genomic data has shown that South Africa's sardine Sardinops sagax comprises at last two populations, a cold-adapted Atlantic Ocean population and a warm-adapted Indian Ocean population. These sardines are the main target species of South Africa’s small pelagic fishery, which is the country’s largest fishing industry. These genomic data provided an explanation for the mass migration of sardines up the east coast (the sardine run), and it resulted in the current implementation of a two-stock management strategy for the sardine fishery. Nonetheless, the original dataset covered only a small portion of the sardine genome, preventing a thorough understanding of deeper fine-scale stock structure and the genomic basis of thermal adaptation. This MSc projects will use whole genome sequencing data from 96 specimens to characterize genetic connectivity between South African sardines and those in Namibia and Mozambique, and to predict stock responses to climate change. This project will set a precedent for genomics-informed fisheries management in southern Africa that can be applied to additional species, and improve expertise in this technology in the region.
The MSc project will be based in Oslo with an opportunity to visit collaborators in South-Africa. This MSc position requires little field or laboratory work and requires mostly genomic analyses. An interest in- and experience with bioinformatic approaches, command line programming and/or population genetic analyses is therefore highly recommended.
The MSc position will be associated with the Archaeogenomics research group at UiO.
https://twitter.com/archaeogenomics
https://www.mn.uio.no/cees/english/research/groups/archaeogenomics/
Supervisor:
Prof. Bastiaan Star (CEES, UiO)
Collaborator:
Prof. Peter Teske, University of Johannesburg, South Africa