DrMarina Telonis-Scott

I focus on evolutionary responses to environmental change, specifically climatic adaptation at the behavioural, physiological, genetic and genomic levels. Organisms faced with climate stress can either move away from stressful conditions, adapt via evolution, or in their own lifetimes express different phenotypes to environmental challenge a process known as phenotypic plasticity, mediated through shifts in gene expression.

I take an integrative approach to study plastic and evolutionary responses to key climate drivers on the Australian East coast, incorporating the impact of sex and sexual selection on climate adaptation in natural populations of Drosophila. I am also interested evolutionary responses to disease and ongoing genetic conservation of endemic species, including the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) Facial Tumour Disorder (DFTD) and the critically endangered endemic Burrunan dolphin (Tursiops Australis) suffering from population decline, low genetic diversity and high exposure to various anthropogenic threats including a lethal Freshwater Skin Disease (FWSD) in the Gippsland Lakes.