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LENScience


Ancient Secrets in the Seaweed: Climate Change and Evolution

Allan Wilson Centre Post Doctoral Fellow Ceridwen Fraser has recently completed her PhD, which saw her spend three years unravelling a story of the impact of climate cycles hidden in the DNA of Southern Bull Kelp.

However, since the early 1970’s scientists have been concerned at the effect of increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting from Human activities. These increased greenhouse gases are raising temperatures and destabilising the Earth’s climate systems. They are changing the natural climate cycles.

Natural Climate Cycles are an important part of the Earth’s systems that cause changes in the physical (abiotic) environment, and through these changes, impact on the biotic environment within ecosystems. These environmental changes may alter selection pressures that could result in changes to the distribution patterns of species.

Using modern biotechnologies to analyse DNA from Bull Kelp samples collected from the coastline of New Zealand, Southern Chile and Sub-Antarctic Islands, Ceridwen Fraser has discovered evidence that in the last ice age the sea  ice was more extensive than previously thought, and that this has affected the distribution of populations of Kelp that we see today.


 

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Seminar paper
"Ancient Secrets in the Seaweed: Climate Change and Evolution" seminar paper (3.2 MB, PDF)
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Pre-seminar paper
"Ancient Secrets in the Seaweed: Climate Change and Evolution" pre-seminar paper (1.1 MB, PDF)
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Seminar challenge questions
"Ancient Secrets in the Seaweed: Climate Change and Evolution" challenge questions (1.2 MB, PDF)