Lab Members
Current members
Todd Seamons, Postdoc
Todd is currently researching the interactions between hatchery and wild steelhead populations, using molecular pedigree-based methods. He has also worked extensively on life history evolution, using the same approaches. He currently works with Tom Quinn, Lorenz Hauser and me, but in reality, he advises us.
Marine Brieuc, PhD student.
Marine’s research uses genomic approaches to study the evolution of Chinook salmon populations. Chinook salmon have undergone parallel evolution for key life history traits (for example, run timing), sometimes recently. An intriguing possibility is that the same genes are subject to repeated selection following colonization of new habitat. We are using a variety of genomic tools to characterize divergence at genes, QTL and anonymous loci between these populations, in order to identify the major evolutionary processes leading to diversification in this species. Marine's work is sponsored by Washington Sea Grant.
Miyako Kodama, MS student
Miyako is using molecular-based pedigrees in coho salmon to investigate the rate and direction of evolution in correlated traits in a wild population, and to compare this rate to a newly initiated hatchery population. Our larger goal in this research is to understand the potential to reduce domestication selection in hatcheries by using gene flow from wild to hatchery populations (“Integrated” hatcheries).
Teresa Sjostrom, MS student
Teresa is working on the incidence and fitness effects of hybridization between steelhead and cutthroat trout in Hood Canal, Washington.
Melissa Baird and Isadora Jiminez-Hidalgo
Melissa Baird and Isadora Jiminez-Hidalgo are our two invaluable lab managers who keep us in great shape and generate data sets on a variety of projects (primarily driven by our mad ideas).
Dave Rose
Dave Rose is the all-important hatchery manager (and good sport) out at Big Beef Creek – where our experimental populations are kept.
Amazing Undergrad Capstones
Sophie Pierszalowski is collaborating with researchers at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center on the population structure of humpback whales.
Recent Lab Members
Erin McClelland (PhD and MS).
Erin’s PhD (Genomic approaches to examining evolutionary processes in coho salmon) used genome mapping to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) related to growth and development. She then used a population genomic approach to determine whether there was evidence for selection at these loci in natural populations. Erin’s MS research (Outbreeding depression in fishes: meta-analysis and a case study in coho salmon) was aimed at understanding the effects of outbreeding in fish populations. She used published studies to determine whether the effects of outbreeding could be predicted, and then crossed two unrelated populations to determine the genetic basis of the change in fitness. Erin is currently a postdoc for DFO in Canada. Erin's work was sponsored by Washington Sea Grant.
Willy Eldridge (PhD)
Willy’s PhD (Human impacts on the genetic diversity of Pacific salmon through hatcheries and harvest) addressed two questions. He first used archival scale samples and contemporary samples to examine change in population structure in coho salmon over time, and then investigated whether hatchery release number was related to this change. He also used modeling to study the evolutionary impacts of harvest in Chinook salmon. He developed a variance-covariance G matrix of correlated traits, coupled it with a Leslie matrix, and used this model to investigate the effects of different harvest strategies on the evolution of Chinook populations. Willy is now a Principle Investigator at the Stroud Water Research Center. Willy's work was sponsored by Washington Sea Grant.
Michael Dauer (MS)
Mike’s MS (Conservation genetics in a steelhead hatchery: an assessment of the effects of inbreeding, and potential for reproduction between hatchery and wild populations) was aimed at understanding the fitness effects of small population size in a closed hatchery population. He used a three generational molecular pedigree to estimate effective population size and inbreeding rate, and compared the fitness between inbred and outbred individuals. He then turned his attention to the use of fish scales to characterize the life history of hatchery and wild fish – and used this information to estimate the number of hatchery fish found on the wild spawning grounds. Mike worked for a while in a Drosophila genetics lab, and is now at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane.
Ingrid Spies (MS)
Ingrid was coadvised between Prof Paul Bentzen and me. Her MS (The origin of sockeye salmon in the Lake Washington Watershed, Washington State: A reappraisal based on microsatellite data) compared populations of sockeye in Lake Washington to putative source populations and to indigenous kokanee in the system, in order to determine whether they were introduced or native. Ingrid is currently working in the genetics group at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
Lyndsay Newton
Lyndsay was key to helping us establish our lab, and generated a number of invaluable data sets for our genomic work, primarily in Chinook salmon. Lyndsay followed her main interest, and is currently working on animal behavior in a zoo.
Amazing Undergrad Capstones
Marco Hatch tracked changes in salmon abundance over centuries using molecular markers to study species composition in local middens. Marco is a PhD student at Scripps. Matt Smith studied the population structure of bull trout in streams in Washington – and found isolation by distance on a very small scale. Matt is now an MS student in Lisa Seeb’s group, and continues his bull trout work on the side. Chris Spicher used population genomic approaches to investigate evidence for selection in Chinook introduced in New Zealand. Daniel Levin studied the effects of parental traits on juvenile development in Chinook salmon. A number of other very smart folks have conducted independent research with us.
