Seth M Rudman

Abstract Understanding processes that can produce adaptive phenotypic shifts in response to rapid environmental change is critical to reducing biodiversity loss. The ubiquity of environmentally induced epigenetic marks has led to speculation that epigenetic inheritance could potentially enhance population persistence in response to environmental change. Yet, the magnitude and fitness consequences of epigenetic marks carried beyond maternal inheritance are largely unknown.

Abstract Environmental risk assessment is a critical tool for protecting aquatic life and its effectiveness is predicated on predicting how natural populations respond to contaminants. Yet, routine toxicity testing typically examines only one genotype, which may render risk assessments inaccurate as populations are most often composed of genetically distinct individuals.

Abstract Collecting phenotypic data from many individuals is critical to numerous biological disciplines. Yet, organismal phenotypic or trait data are still often collected manually, limiting the scale of data collection, precluding reproducible workflows, and creating the potential for human bias. Computer vision could largely ameliorate these issues, but currently available packages only operate with specific inputs and hence are not scalable or accessible for many biologists.