At a time when humans are imposing an unprecedented burden on the world's ecosystems, studying how organisms can tolerate pollutants is crucial to understanding the impact of human activities – and to helping to mitigate it in the future.
Led by Dr. Gregor Rolshausen, then a postdoctoral researcher at McGill working with Prof. Andrew Hendry, the team went to study the guppy fish living in polluted areas, comparing their morphology and genetic makeup to those of similar guppies from non-polluted parts of Trinidad.
But the key to the guppies’ survival in oil-polluted waters was not what the researchers had expected. Prof. Hendry explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=568hCM-wFZs
Do stressful conditions make adaptation difficult? Guppies in the oil-polluted environments of southern Trinidad, in Evolutionary Applications, Volume 8, Issue 9, pages 854–870, October 2015.By Gregor Rolshausen, Dawn Phillip, Denise Beckles, Ali Akbari, Subhasis Ghoshal, Patrick Hamilton, Charles Tyler, Alan Scarlett, Indar Ramnarine, Paul Bentzen and Andrew P. Hendryhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eva.12289/abstract
Contact: Dr. Gregor Rolshausen [email protected]
Andrew Hendry [email protected]
Vincent C. AllaireCommunications associateMcGill Media Relations Office514-398-6693 (office)514-704-6693 (cell)[email protected]
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