Elizabeth G. Boulding boulding@uoguelph.ca
Marine Population Biology, Quantitative genetics, Evolutionary ecology, Conservation genetics, Molecular ecology Current and Recent Students & Postdocs B.Sc. 1980 (British Columbia) M.Sc. 1983 (Alberta) Ph.D. 1990 (U. Washington)

EXTINCTION OR EVOLUTION OF POPULATIONS AFTER A CHANGE IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Current Project 1: Ecological and evolutionary effects of global change on some marine invertebrate populations (with Bryan Cassone, Hyuk Je Lee, and Ray McCarthy).
Global warming may allow predators from the subtropics to extend their geographical range into Canada. Range expansions into Canadian waters occurred during the 1997/1998 El Nino event when the entire West Coast experienced abnormally warm sea surface temperatures. This provided an excellent preview of what effects global warming might have on coastal ecosystems because several predator species more typical of California, including the Pacific mackerel and the lined shore crab, temporarily became common in Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island. Permanent introduction of these predators would impact native prey species. Prey species from Canada have not co-evolved with these specialized subtropical predators and may go extinct unless they can quickly adapt.
The current objective of my ongoing research program is to predict which non-indigenous intertidal invertebrate species are liable to extend their range into Canada if average sea surface temperatures permanently increase and to determine what ecological and evolutionary effects these invading species may have on native Canadian species. I will determine whether temperate prey are more vulnerable to tropical predators than comparable temperate ones. I will also predict the dispersal rates pole ward of subtropical predators using their known larval periods, known along-shore current patterns, and "climate envelope models". Shifts in species geographical ranges can not be solely predicted by the comparing physiological temperature tolerances to estimated increases in sea surface temperatures so I will also study how interspecific interactions change with temperature. Mathematical models of the effects of predator invasions must incorporate the spatial arrangement, genetics, and demography of the prey populations and need to be tested in predator-prey systems that can be experimentally manipulated. Our work will allow better prediction of the effects of invasions by non-indigenous species which are becoming more common because of human activities. (Boulding 2008; Boulding et al. 2007).

Our Nudibranch Point study site on the West Coast of Vancouver Island showing the natural snail populations and the concrete shelters containing the crabs

Current Project 2: Population Dynamics and Genetics of Marine Gastropods after an Invasion of Predators (with Martha Jones, Chris Kyle, Toby Hay, Meike Holst, Angela Tie, Deborah Pakes, and Stephanie Kamel).
We have transplanted small predatory crabs to wave-exposed shores by building them concrete shelters near Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre http://www.bms.bc.ca/. We have tethered gastropods differ at different distances from the shelters and found that they were most likely to be preyed upon if they were within 2 metres of the shelters and if they had thin shells. We used microsatellites to estimate the population boundaries (demes) of the snails so we could see how this compared with the selection gradient created by the predators.  This work is funded by NSERC Discovery grants and a PREA award to EGB. Ph.D. or M.Sc. position available for September 2009: Ph.D. position available

 

Meike attaching screws to the rock to tie the tethered snails to

Two species of direct-developing marine gastropods that were tethered: left: Littorina subrotundata which has a thin shell, right: Littorina sitkana which has a thick shell

Predation risk of 3 populations

Crab shelters showing the Red zone of high predation risk for the snails and the Green zone of low predation risk. Individuals in snail populations a and c (in Yellow) experience a lower average risk of predation than those in population b and may take longer to evolve predator resistant traits such as thicker shells. 

Northern abalone, Haliotis kamtschatkana   Current Project 3: Abalone Conservation Genetics (with Kaitlyn Read and in collaboration with Dr. Louis Gosselin (PI) and Dr. Chris Harley).  
  Northern abalone were once a key member of coastal ecosystems and an important economic and cultural resource in western Canada. However, over-exploitation led to dramatic population declines and the closure of the fishery in 1990. Since that time, northern abalone populations have failed to recover. This is likely due in large part to extremely low adult densities which reduce reproductive rates. Current restoration efforts involve outplanting hatchery-reared animals to boost population sizes in the wild by the Bamfield Huu-ay-aht Community Abalone Project.
My laboratory's part in this research is improve outplanting strategies for rebuilding wild populations.  Kaitlyn will evaluate the success of past outplanting efforts will be assessed via non-lethal genetic identification of outplanted individuals in the wild using microsatellites protocols developed by Matt Lemay and Dr. Aibin Zhan. Her experiments will determine the relative success of larval vs. juvenile outplanting, and the importance of habitat-modification and predator control in facilitating the survival of hatchery-raised animals in the wild. By using a combination of laboratory and field techniques, we will gain important insights into the biology of this species. Funded by NSERC Strategic Supplemental grant:

Past Project 4:  Selective Breeding (with Matt Lemay and in collaboration with Dr. Yajie Liu and Dr. Jane Tosh, Dr. Ian McMillian and Dr. Rashid Sumaila).
Our past AquaNet funded research project developed a selective breeding program for cultured pinto abalone Haliotis kamtschatkana at the Bamfield Huu-Ay-Aht Community Abalone Project (BHCAP)on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, B.C.. This breeding program will apply modern animal breeding methodology to improve the cultured population for economically-important traits, while minimizing inbreeding accumulation. Such a breeding plan is essential because of the potential for rapid inbreeding accumulation resulting from the high fecundity of the abalone and limited rearing space in the hatchery. (manuscript in review).


Current Project 5: Atlantic Salmon Conservation Genetics (with Dr. Mark Culling and Heather Freamo and Kristen Patterson from my laboratory, Co-investigators: Dr. Ian Fleming and his Ph.D. student Nate Wilke (Memorial U.) and Trish Schulte and her postdoc Wendy Tymchuk(UBC); Collaborators: Drs. Patrick O'Reilly and Brian Glebe of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada (DFO), Dr. Fred G. Whoriskey, Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), Dr. Keng Pee Ang of Cooke Aquaculture, Dr. Sigbjørn Lien & Dr. Thomas Moen (CIGENE, Norway) and Dr. Paloma Moràn (U. Vigo, Spain).
Our part of this project involves looking for correlations between SNPs and complex traits including gene expression polymorphisms (ELPs) detected with microarrays as well as morphological, behavioural, life history, and physiological traits in Atlantic salmon to determine the extent to which these traits have an underlying genetic basis. Atlantic salmon of the inner Bay of Fundy (iBoF) are listed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and thus have been the subject of a captive breeding program by Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.  While I was on sabbatical at CIGENE in Norway we genotyped 320 SNPs (Moen, Lien, Berg) in four large families from backcrossed North American and European aquacultural strains (Glebe) that Mark had measured for camouflage, morphometric and life history traits.  This enabled us to document statistical associations between SNPs in candidate genes and genetic differences in complex traits  which, may assist in their conservation.   CIGENE also genotyped 320 SNPs for 30 fish from each of eleven inner and outer Bay of Fundy Populations.  Heather used nine of our SNP markers that seem to be under strong diversifying selection to genotype archived fin clips from the  wild Atlantic salmon populations using the Invader SNP assay and is currently performing assignment tests (O'Reilly). (Boulding et al. 2008; Manuscripts in review).

After her M.Sc. degree Elizabeth Boulding worked for Fisheries and Oceans at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography for two years. After her Ph.D. degree she held an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at Simon Fraser University. She was awarded an NSERC Women's Faculty Award in 1993 and joined the faculty of the University of Guelph. She is editor of the Mollusc Molecular News Web Site.
 
Selected Publications since 2000