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The Durrell Trust for Conservation Biology
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CV 2006 - 08
Research interests My main interests lie in conservation genetics and molecular ecology. I am particularly interested in comparisons of historical genetic diversity to contemporary populations. I am currently working with Dr Jim Groombridge on Hawaiian forest bird species to investigate the role genetic diversity may play in extinction. This project utilises ancient Hawaiian feather artifacts as well as the more usual museum specimens and contemporary samples. Prior to this project I worked on comparisons of genetic diversity between historical and contemporary populations of Irish red grouse with Joanna Freeland at the Open University (funded by Environment Service of the Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland). My doctoral research supervised by Joanna Freeland, Mike Gillman (Open Univerity) and Ian Woiwod (Rothamsted Research) was on the garden tiger moth (Arctia caja), a species that has undergone a dramatic decline in the UK.
Selected publications Anderson SJ, Dawson DA & Freeland JR (2006) Isolation and characterisation of highly polymorphic microsatellite loci for the garden tiger moth Arctia caja (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). Molecular Ecology Notes 6(1), 104-106 Freeland, J. R., Allen, D. & Anderson, S. J. E. (2006). DNA analysis of red grouse: An analysis of taxonomy and genetic diversity. Report for the Environment and Heritage Service, Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland Anderson SJ, Freeland JR, Woiwod IP & Conrad KF (2005) Environment driven dispersal of the Garden Tiger Moth (Arctia caja) in the UK. Oral presentation. ESEB conference 2005, Krakow, Poland. Henshilwood K, Dore W, Anderson S & Lees D (2003). Investigation Of Norwalk Like Virus Elimination During Depuration Using A Real Time Quantitative PCR. In: Molluscan Shellfish Safety. A. Villalba, J.L. Romalde, B. Reura & R. Beiras (eds).
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Research
Associate, DICE.
Climate
change and altered land management have been implicated in an 85% decline
in the abundance of garden tiger moths (Arctia caja) over the past
thirty years in the U.K. At the same time that overall numbers have been
falling, the distribution of abundance of this species has been moving
northwards (Conrad et al., 2001, 2002). My doctoral work used morphological
and genetic data to investigate whether some of these changes in distribution
are most likely attributable to local increases in the sizes of northerly
populations, or to a northwards dispersal of individuals from more southerly
populations.
Microsatellite
and mitochondrial DNA analysis of museum specimens and contemporary populations
suggested a northward dispersal west of the Penines with possibly an associated
founder effect in the north. Morphological measurements comparing historical
and current populations also demonstrated a significant change in wing
shape implying an increased capacity for long distance flight. These data
imply that Arctia caja are evolving and moving northwards in response
to environmental change. The results of this project demonstrated that
species which have not yet undergone range changes, and which may therefore
be considered relatively impervious to anthropogenic change, may nevertheless
be experiencing potentially irreversible changes in morphology, genetics,
and population dynamics.