
Moisés A. BernalAuburn University | AU · Department of Biological Sciences
Moisés A. Bernal
PhD
Evaluating responses of marine fishes to environmental fluctuation and the potential for adaptation/acclimation.
About
49
Publications
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
August 2008 - December 2015
Publications
Publications (49)
Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) are highly abundant in coastal ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic Ocean and serve as a crucial link in marine food webs. Despite their ecological relevance, little is known about this species' susceptibility to anthropogenic climate change. Here, we characterized patterns of mitochondrial genetic dive...
Pinfish ( Lagodon rhomboides ) are highly abundant in coastal ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic Ocean and serve as a crucial link in marine food webs. Despite their ecological relevance, little is known about this species’ susceptibility to anthropogenic climate change. Here, we characterized patterns of mitochondrial genetic di...
The evolutionary histories of adaptive radiations can be marked by dramatic demographic fluctuations. However, the demographic histories of ecologically-linked co-diversifying lineages remain understudied. The Laurentian Great Lakes provide a unique system of two such radiations that are dispersed across depth gradients with a predator-prey relatio...
Developing robust professional networks can help shape the trajectories of early career scientists. Yet, historical inequities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields make access to these networks highly variable across academic programmes, and senior academics often have little time for mentoring. Here, we illustrate the...
The pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) is an ecologically, economically, and culturally relevant member of family Sparidae, playing crucial roles in marine food webs of the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Despite their high abundance and ecological importance, there is a scarcity of genomic resources for this species. We assembled and annotate...
Sea surface temperatures are rising at unprecedented rates, leading to a progressive degradation of complex habitats formed by coral reefs. In parallel, acute thermal stress can lead to physiological challenges for ectotherms that inhabit coral reefs, including fishes. Warming and habitat simplification could push marine fishes beyond their physiol...
Environmental conditions are one of the main factors influencing the distribution of species across ecosystems. As humans modify both abiotic and biotic parameters across different ecosystems, it is essential to understand how anthropogenic activities can affect the distribution of species and/ or populations. Changes to coastal ecosystems via urba...
The evolutionary histories of adaptive radiations can be marked by dramatic demographic fluctuations. However, the demographic histories of ecologically-linked co-diversifying lineages remains understudied. The Laurentian Great Lakes provide a unique system of two lineages that are dispersed across depth gradients with a predator-prey relationship....
Transcriptomes are appropriate resources for studying species that lack sequenced genomes, as they can serve as references for a broad suite of genetic applications, including: phylogenetic assessments, population genomics, and evaluate responses to environmental fluctuations. Here, we present the transcriptomes of two species of marine fishes of c...
Following the draft sequence of the first human genome over 20 years ago, we have achieved unprecedented insights into the rules governing its evolution, often with direct translational relevance to specific diseases. However, staggering sequence complexity has also challenged the development of a more comprehensive understanding of human genome bi...
Field biology is an area of research that involves working directly with living organisms in situ through a practice known as “fieldwork.” Conducting fieldwork often requires complex logistical planning within multiregional or multinational teams, interacting with local communities at field sites, and collaborative research led by one or a few of t...
Groups of sympatric taxa with low inter‐specific genetic differentiation, but considerable ecological differences, offer great opportunities to study the dynamics of divergence and speciation. This is the case of ciscoes (Coregonus spp.) in the Laurentian Great Lakes, which are characterized by a complex evolutionary history and are commonly descri...
Octocorals are conspicuous members of coral reefs and deep-sea ecosystems. Yet, species boundaries and taxonomic relationships within this group remain poorly understood, hindering our understanding of this essential component of the marine fauna. We used a multifaceted approach to revisit the systematics of the Caribbean octocorals Plexaura homoma...
Field biology is an area of research that involves working directly with living organisms in situ through a practice known as “fieldwork.” Conducting fieldwork often requires complex logistical planning within
multiregional or multinational teams, interacting with local communities at field sites, and collaborative research led by one or a few of t...
Alternative splicing is a molecular mechanism that enables a single gene to encode multiple transcripts and proteins by post-transcriptional modification of pre-RNA molecules. Changes in the splicing scheme of genes can lead to modifications of the transcriptome and the proteome. This mechanism can enable organisms to respond to environmental fluct...
Ocean warming is a threat to marine biodiversity, as it can push marine species beyond their physiological limits. Detrimental effects can occur when marine poikilotherms are exposed to conditions beyond their thermal optima. However, acclamatory mechanisms, such as plasticity, may enable compensation of detrimental effects if warming is experience...
Anthropogenic climate change is causing increases in the frequency, intensity, and duration of marine heatwaves (MHWs). These short-term warming events can last for days to weeks and can produce severe disruptions in marine ecosystems, as many aquatic species are poikilotherms that depend on the conditions of the environment for physiological proce...
Global warming is expected to drive some ectothermic species beyond their thermal tolerance in upcoming decades. Phenotypic plasticity, via developmental or transgenerational acclimation, is a critical mechanism for compensation in the face of environmental change. Yet it remains to be determined if the activation of beneficial phenotypes requires...
Alternative splicing is a molecular mechanism that enables a single gene to encode multiple transcripts and proteins by post-transcriptional modification of pre-RNA molecules. Changes in the splicing scheme of genes can lead to modifications of the transcriptome and the proteome. This mechanism can enable organisms to respond to environmental fluct...
Background
The highfin blenny, Lupinoblennius nicholsi, is a marine fish species reported in reef and rocky inshore habitats with a disjunct distribution in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Overall, there are very few studies on this species and there is a scarcity of molecular resources for genetic comparisons. We set out to report the first mitochond...
Groups of sympatric taxa with low inter-specific genetic differentiation, but considerable ecological differences, offer great opportunities to study the dynamics of divergence and speciation. This is the case of ciscoes ( Coregonus spp.) in the Laurentian Great Lakes, which are characterized by a complex evolutionary history and are commonly descr...
Local adaptation can drive diversification of closely related species across environmental gradients and promote convergence of distantly related taxa that experience similar conditions. We examined a potential case of adaptation to novel visual environments in a species flock (Great Lakes salmonids, genus Coregonus) using a new amplicon genotyping...
Local adaptation can drive diversification of closely related species across environmental gradients and promote convergence of distantly related taxa that experience similar conditions. We examined a potential case of adaptation to novel visual environments in a species flock (Great Lakes salmonids, genus Coregonus) using a new amplicon genotyping...
The marine heatwave of 2016 was one of the longest and hottest thermal anomalies recorded on the Great Barrier Reef, influencing multiple species of marine ectotherms, including coral reef fishes. There is a gap in our understanding of what the physiological consequences of heatwaves in wild fish populations are. Thus, in this study, we used liver...
Abstract Hybrid zones are natural laboratories for investigating the dynamics of gene flow, reproductive isolation, and speciation. A predominant marine hybrid (or suture) zone encompasses Christmas Island (CHR) and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (CKE), where 15 different instances of interbreeding between closely related species from Indian and Pacific O...
A wide variety of species are distinguished by slight color variations. However, molecular analyses have repeatedly demonstrated that coloration does not always correspond to distinct evolutionary histories between closely related groups, suggesting that this trait is labile and can be misleading for species identification. In the present study, we...
Background
Coral reefs are major hotspots of diversity for marine fishes, yet there is still ongoing debate on the mechanisms that promote divergence in these rich ecosystems. Our understanding of how diversity originates in this environment could be enhanced by investigating the evolutionary dynamics of closely related fishes with overlapping rang...
Global warming will have far‐reaching consequences for marine species over coming decades, yet the magnitude of these effects may depend on the rate of warming across generations. Recent experiments show coral reef fishes can compensate the metabolic challenges of elevated temperature when warm conditions are maintained across generations. However,...
Closely related marine species with large sympatric ranges provide opportunities to study the mechanisms of speciation, particularly when there is evidence of gene flow between the lineages. Here we focus on a case of hybridization between the sympatric sister-species Haemulon maculicauda and H. flaviguttatum, using Sanger sequencing of mitochondri...
A phylogeographic study of the circumtropical glasseye Heteropriacanthus cruentatus was conducted. Molecular analyses indicate two mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (coI) lineages that are 10·4% divergent: one in the western Atlantic (Caribbean) and another that was detected across the Indo-Pacific. A fixed single nucleotide polymorphism...
Few studies have reported on the fine-scale population genetics of batoid species in the Atlantic basin. Here, we investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of the spotted eagle ray, Aetobatus narinari, sampled in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the Gulf of Mexico and in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. Samples were collec...
The drivers of speciation remain among the most controversial topics in evolutionary biology. Initially, Darwin emphasized natural selection as a primary mechanism of speciation, but the architects of the modern synthesis largely abandoned that view in favor of divergence by geographic isolation. The balance between selection and isolation is still...
During expeditions to Curaçao in August and October of 2013, a large number of fish infected with dermal parasites was observed. Infected individuals presented black spots and white blemishes on their skin and fins that were easily observed by divers, and which have been associated with infections by trematodes, turbellarians, and protozoans (Crypt...
This study investigated the birth of a brownbanded bamboo shark Chiloscyllium punctatum at the Steinhart Aquarium. Genetic analyses suggest this is the longest documented case of sperm storage for any species of shark (45 months).
What shapes variation in genetic structure within a community of co-distributed species is a central but difficult question for the field of population genetics. With a focus on the isolated coral reef ecosystem of the Hawaiian Archipelago, we assessed how life history traits influence population genetic structure for 35 reef animals. Despite the a...
The advent of Sanger sequencing represented a scientific breakthrough that greatly advanced biogeographic studies. However, this technology has several limitations that have hampered more ad‐ vanced studies in the field. The development of novel techniques which more fully exploit the potential of Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) to deliver sequ...
Sea level fluctuations during glacial cycles affect the distribution of shallow marine biota, exposing the continental shelf on a global scale, and displacing coral reef habitat to steep slopes on oceanic islands. In these circumstances we expect that species inhabiting lagoons should show shallow genetic architecture relative to species inhabiting...
Population summary statistics for each species. Overall population statistics for each species. Control region values are in bold, following CO1 values. ΦST, Haplotype diversity (h), nucleotide diversity (π), and effective population sizes (NE) are given for each species.
(DOCX)
Simulated Bayesian skyline plots for each species and molecular marker. Effective population sizes were estimated using Bayesian skyline plots in BEAST. The thick solid line in the middle of each figure represents the median estimates, while the thinner upper and lower line represent the 95% confidence intervals. The CO1 data is on the left, contro...
Details of the root distribution fitting methods.
(DOCX)
Plants interact with each other, nutrients, and microbial communities in soils through extensive root networks. Understanding these below ground interactions has been difficult in natural systems, particularly those with high plant species diversity where morphological identification of fine roots is difficult. We combine DNA-based root identificat...
The ocean surgeonfish, Acanthurus bahianus, has been historically recorded from Bermuda and Massachusetts to southern Brazil and the islands of the central Atlantic. We have found that individuals in the southwestern and central Atlantic con-sistently have a posterior bright yellow margin on the caudal fin and an orange/red margin on the dorsal fin...