Suzanne Edmands
USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Suzanne Edmands is hoping a tiny creature will help solve a big puzzle.
The USC College researcher is studying a minute organism called the tide pool copepod to test the relationship between parental relatedness and offspring fitness. Her findings are shedding light on whether mating between genetically distant members of the same species can lead to a decline in offspring fitness.
The information is crucial because understanding the genetic consequences of population mixing has important conservation implications.
"Relocating species from one region of the country to another is becoming a common method of expanding endangered populations," says Edmands. "We need to know whether conservation strategies are causing more harm than good."