Office: LSC 4045 Dalhousie University Telephone: +1 (902) 494-1688 Fax: +1 (902) 494-3736 Postal: Daniel E. Ruzzante Dept. of Biology Dalhousie University 1355 Oxford St. Halifax Nova Scotia B3H 4R2 CANADA
Research in our lab addresses fundamental questions in evolutionary and conservation biology and most of it has implications for managing, conserving, or restoring biodiversity. We examine variability at the molecular level and apply the approaches of phylogeography, landscape and conservation genetics to ask what historical and contemporary factors are responsible for the generation, maintenance, and spatial distribution of diversity. From a taxonomic perspective we focus on aquatic organisms.
In our research on conservation and landscape genetics we ask how and to what extent natural selection and genetic drift effect patterns of genetic diversity and population structure. We examine these issues both in large populations, such as those characteristic of marine exploited systems, as well as in small populations, such as those typical of freshwater systems, where issues related to spatial structure, habitat fragmentation and genetic drift become relatively important.
Some of our research involves the analysis of diversity patterns in Patagonia. This collaborative work advances along two lines; in the first we ask how patterns of diversity in the extant fish fauna were affected by the Quaternary climate cycles and other changes in landscape and sea level, and in the second we ask how exotic and invasive salmonids affect the biogeography and ecology of this fauna.
Most research in our lab involves molecular laboratory work combined with field work and, depending on the project field work takes place in Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or Patagonia.