Georgina Lauren BrennanInstitut de Ciències del Mar · Marine Biology and Oceanography
Georgina Lauren Brennan
PhD, MSc Molecular Ecology, BSc Biology
About
29
Publications
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Introduction
It is predicted under the framework of global change that many aspects of the ocean (as elsewhere) will change simultaneously and what I want to understand is how complexity in environmental stresses affects an organism’s ability to adapt.
In order to understand the role of environmental complexity in adaptation I am using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism to systematically test how increasing the complexity of environmental change affects evolutionary dynamics and outcomes.
Additional affiliations
November 2011 - January 2016
November 2011 - October 2016
September 2010 - September 2011
Education
September 2010 - September 2011
Publications
Publications (29)
One feature of global change is that biota must respond not to single, but to multiple environmental drivers. By growing a model photosynthetic microbe in environments containing between one and eight different drivers, including changes in CO2
,
temperature, and pH, in different combinations, we show that the number as well as the identities of dr...
Gene flow in macroalgal populations can be strongly influenced by spore or gamete dispersal. This, in turn, is influenced by a convolution of the effects of current flow and specific plant reproductive strategies. Although several studies have demonstrated genetic variability in macroalgal populations over a wide range of spatial scales, the associ...
Although invasive species are recognized as a major threat to freshwaters, little is known about how future climate warming will affect the success of invaders. Ecosystems are also often simultaneously impacted by multiple, potentially interacting, invading species and the management of species invasions can be incredibly difficult. Sensitive metho...
Ocean warming (OW) and acidification (OA) are recognized as two major climatic conditions influencing phytoplankton growth and nutritional or toxin content. However, there is limited knowledge on the responses of harmful algal bloom species that produce toxins. Here, the study provides quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the acclimation a...
The projected ocean acidification (OA) associated with increasing atmospheric CO 2 alters seawater chemistry and hence the bio-toxicity of metal ions. However, it is still unclear how OA might affect the long-term resilience of globally important marine microalgae to anthropogenic metal stress. To explore the effect of increasing p CO 2 on copper m...
Ocean microbes are fundamental for the functioning of the Earth system. Yet, our understanding of how they are reacting to global change in terms of evolution is limited. Microbes typically grow in large populations and reproduce quickly, which may allow them to rapidly adapt to environmental stressors compared to larger organisms. However, genetic...
Generalist species are core components of ecological networks and crucial for the maintenance of biodiversity. Generalised species and networks are expected to be more resilient, therefore understanding the dynamics of specialisation and generalisation in ecological networks is a key focus in a time of rapid global change. Whilst diet generalisatio...
Over the last two decades, there has been a huge increase in our understanding of microbial diversity, structure and composition enabled by high-throughput sequencing technologies. Yet, it is unclear how the number of sequences translates to the number of cells or species within the community. In some cases, additional observational data may be req...
Over the last two decades, there has been a huge increase in our understanding of microbial diversity, structure and composition enabled by high throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies. Yet, it is unclear how the number of sequences translates to the number of cells or species within the community. Additional observational data may be required to...
Availability of suitable nectar and pollen resources is a limiting factor for pollinator survival, with both overall resource quantity and quality, along with provision throughout the season, being critical. Yet, our understanding of how the selection of floral resources changes over time, and how this relates to floral availability within the land...
1. Gardens are important habitats for pollinators, providing floral resources and nesting sites. There are high levels of public support for growing ‘pollinator‐friendly’ plants but whilst plant recommendation lists are available, they are usually inconsistent, poorly supported by scientific research and target a narrow group of pollinators. In ord...
Allergic rhinitis is an inflammation in the nose caused by overreaction of the immune system to allergens in the air. Managing allergic rhinitis symptoms is challenging and requires timely intervention. The following are major questions often posed by those with allergic rhinitis: How should I prepare for the forthcoming season? How will the season...
Allergic rhinitis is an inflammation in the nose caused by overreaction of the immune system to allergens in the air. Managing allergic rhinitis symptoms is challenging and requires timely intervention. The following are major questions often posed by those with allergic rhinitis: How should I prepare for the forthcoming season? How will the season...
Grass (Poaceae) pollen is the most important outdoor aeroallergen,¹ exacerbating a range of respiratory conditions, including allergic asthma and rhinitis (“hay fever”).2, 3, 4, 5 Understanding the relationships between respiratory diseases and airborne grass pollen with a view to improving forecasting has broad public health and socioeconomic rele...
Decreasing floral resources as a result of habitat loss is one of the key factors in the decline of pollinating insects worldwide. Understanding which plants pollinators use is vital to inform the provision of appropriate floral resources to help prevent pollinator loss. Using a globally important pollinator, the honeybee, we show how changes in ag...
Classical biomonitoring techniques have focused primarily on measures linked to various biodiversity metrics and indicator species. Next-generation biomonitoring (NGB) describes a suite of tools and approaches that allow the examination of a broader spectrum of organizational levels—from genes to entire ecosystems. Here, we frame 10 key questions t...
Grass pollen is the world’s most harmful outdoor aeroallergen. However, it is unknown how airborne pollen assemblages change across time and space. Human sensitivity varies between different species of grass that flower at different times, but it is not known whether temporal turnover in species composition match terrestrial flowering or whether sp...
Successfully predicting the future states of systems that are complex, stochastic and potentially chaotic is a major challenge. Model forecasting error (FE) is the usual measure of success; however model predictions provide no insights into the potential for improvement. In short, the realized predictability of a specific model is uninformative abo...
Kelp are main iodine accumulators in the ocean, and their growth and photosynthesis are likely to benefit from elevated seawater CO2 levels due to ocean acidification. However, there are currently no data on the effects of ocean acidification on iodine metabolism in kelp. As key primary producers in coastal ecosystems worldwide, any change in their...
Grass pollen is the world's most harmful outdoor aeroallergen and sensitivity varies between species. Different species of grass flower at different times, but it is not known how airborne communities of grass pollen change in time and space. Persistence and high mobility of grass pollen could result in increasingly diverse seasonal pollen communit...
Successfully predicting the future states of systems that are complex, stochastic and potentially chaotic is a major challenge. Model forecasting error (FE) is the usual measure of success; however model predictions provide no insights into the potential for improvement. In short, the realized predictability of a specific model is uninformative abo...
Significance
Our understanding of how primary producers at the base of aquatic ecosystems respond to complex environmental change currently depends on studies using few environmental drivers, or scenarios where drivers covary. However, we lack a general understanding of evolution in multidriver environments. We evolve a microbial primary producer i...
In my thesis I present data collected from a long-term selection experiment using the freshwater model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The selection experiment was designed to disentangle the effects of the number of multiple environmental drivers (MEDs) and the identity of those environmental drivers including high CO2, high temperature, gener...
Projects
Projects (2)
A single drop of water from marine, river or lake environments contains diverse communities of aquatic microbes. These ‘tiny’ communities are particularly important as they are the foundation of aquatic ecosystems, responsible for approximately half of global primary productivity. Molecular genomics could disclose more information about the ecology and evolution of aquatic microbes. This knowledge is essential for understanding how globally important microbes will respond to global climate change. The research presented here aims to quantify the rate of evolution in natural assemblages of aquatic microbes by combining metagenomics and time-series data analysis, using an experimental mesocosm approach.
PollerGEN is an interdisciplinary, 1.2 million NERC project with the aim of revolutionising the way that pollen dispersion is measured and forecast, with synergies for understanding the ecology of aerial dispersal. Using molecular genetic techniques we aim to identity which species, or combination of species are present during the pollen season, and determine which species are associated with public health outcomes, such as asthma exacerbations.
