PRR Project

Summary

Biodiversity is in unprecedented decline and, as climate change accelerates, the urgency to understand adaptation is stronger than ever. With moving spatial climate gradients, a wide array of evolutionary processes will act on species that struggle to persist. Expectedly, most efforts to understand adaptation to galloping global warming focus on natural selection. Yet, evolutionary persistence also requires successful reproduction. Thus, sexual selection, or competition for access to fertilizations, is expected to play a key role in evolutionary responses to climate change. Expanding our current knowledge (from genes to phenotype) on the interplay between temperature and sexual selection can not only provide fresh insights into the dynamics of evolutionary processes but also lay out invaluable information leading to more precise projections on climate change impacts on biodiversity, leading to more effective conservation efforts.The first core thematic line of BIOPOLIS, Ecological Assessment and Monitoring advocates for fundamental research on biological diversity, at multiple levels, and its interaction with global climate change (RL2). Fully aligned with the Hosting institution, BIOPOLIS-InBIO defined as key research activities ‘to characterize and understand the evolutionary processes underlying current distributions of biodiversity to guide conservation strategies and policies’ (RA2.4) and ‘use functional genomics approaches to identify the genetic basis of selected traits in locally adapted natural populations, building a basic understanding of biodiversity richness and resilience to environmental change, and promoting conservation of genetic uniqueness’ (RA2.5). Determining how sexual selection supports or hinders adaptation to directional changes in the environment, such as those imposed by global warming, is, indubitably, a research avenue that organically falls within BIOPOLIS-InBIO mission and objectives. Thus, adhering to its strategic objectives (e.g., expand its continued delivery of excellent scientific research and innovation with high societal impact; tackle cutting-edge research problems at the frontiers of current knowledge, harnessing the powerful concepts and tools of the New Biology framework), BIOPOLIS aims to create, within BIOPOLIS-InBIO, a new multidisciplinary research group, led by an experienced researcher, primarily focused on unravelling the interplay between temperature and sexual selection. By incorporating the use of suitable model organisms (e.g., charismatic species able to instil an emotional connection with the general public), this research group can also contribute to an additional strategic objective of BIOPOLIS-InBIO: ‘enhancing the appreciation of science, biodiversity and ecosystems by society’.Within the spectrum of BIOPOLIS-InBIO research fields, BIOPOLIS seeks an exceptional researcher able to lead a research group addressing fundamental topics in evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology. The researcher is expected to identify feedback between ecological and evolutionary processes (namely temperature influence on sexual selection), describe sexual selection impact on adaptation while detecting its potential genomic fingerprints, highlight the association between sexual selection intensity and environmental change, and reveal the limits of phenotypic plasticity in the expression of secondary sexual traits. These topics may be addressed at different levels (from genes to ecosystems) using a variety of approaches: multi-omics, comparative biology, behavioural and field studies. The researcher will be required to participate in supervisions, seek external funding, steer research collaborations and networking, and integrate international consortia in order to advance research and innovation trough strong partnerships. Produced research should have a strong conservation application not limited to but especially relevant for Portugal and countries from BIOPOLIS-InBIO network of TwinLabs.To fit the position, the researcher (PhD holder, with excellent skills in written and spoken Portuguese and English) must show scientific excellence documented through peer-reviewed publications in sexual selection-related topics. Additionally, to showcase group leading skills, coordination of national and international research projects, together with experience in student supervision, is required. An active, international research profile, translated by ongoing collaborations and networking, together with effective activity in conservation-oriented organizations is preferred. To maximize outreach, the researcher should have experience engaging stakeholders and show ability to communicate key scientific messages to wide range audiences. Experience with collaborative research using interdisciplinary approaches, namely genomics (for which BIOPOLIS-InBIO is especially well-equipped), is required.