BSc Thesis · Biological Sciences · Lab
Lead Researcher — BSc Honours Thesis
Headline undergraduate thesis using flour beetles (Tribolium) as a tractable lab proxy for large-mammal populations, testing whether genetic rescue can buffer small populations against the combined effects of inbreeding and climate stress.
This lab project explored a question with direct relevance to large-mammal conservation: can genetic rescue — the introduction of unrelated individuals into an inbred population — meaningfully offset the combined fitness costs of bottlenecking and climate stress?
Tribolium beetles were used as a fast-generation proxy, with controlled inbreeding lines exposed to elevated temperature regimes across multiple generations. Crossed treatment groups allowed comparison of fitness, fecundity, and survival between rescued and unrescued lines.
The work translates a classic conservation-genetics intervention into a tractable experimental system, with implications for how small wild populations might be managed under accelerating climate pressure.