Conservation geneticist
Postdoctoral Fellow
Conservation and landscape geneticist with a strong interest in local adaptation in times of global change.
I am passionate about biodiversity and dedicated to its conservation. I'm mainly focussing on genetic diversity, a rather “neglected” but nevertheless important factor in nature conservation. Combining genomics and conservation modeling is extremely important in order to take informed conservation decisions in our constantly changing world. I am particularly interested in the question how adaptive genetic variation associated to the environment can be informative and used for applied conservation work.
I'm currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Umeå University with Prof. Xiao-Ru Wang. My research focusses on two closely related and hybridizing conifer species, Norway and Siberian Spruce.
My main interest lies in conserving our beautiful mother nature in all of its facets, including genes, species and ecosystems. My research interests and projects range from local adaptation and comparative and landscape genomics to conservation genomics and applied conservation work.
As an active member in the IUCN ‘Conservation Genetics Specialist Group’(CGSG), I am engaged in the promotion of the use of genetics and genomics in conservation management and decision making. We are trying to establish guidelines how to best implement genetics in practical conservation as well as enlarging and connecting the conservation genetics community all around the world.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions about CGSG and our work.
Landscape genomics aims to understand the spatial distribution of genomic variation on the landscape level and in an environmental context. It integrates population genomics, landscape ecology and spatial statistical methods and is nowadays used for a variety of research questions, ranging from conservation efforts, captive breeding approaches, local adaptation or even investigating the genomic offset in regards to changing environmental conditions.
Throughout my scientific career I developed expertise in different landscape genetic/genomic mehtods (among others: GDM, LFMM, Sambada and RDA).
I'm involved in a collaborative conservation project in Romania and Bulgaria (Eastern Europe). In this project we work on different taxa ranging from bird, insect, amphibian to different plant species. With genetic and genomic methods, we investigate how local environmental conditions have shaped the present genetic diversity. Additionally, we provide to support local NGO's in designing and managing protected areas (part of NATURA2000).
I worked on two bumble bee species in Eastern Europe (Bombus terrestris and Bombus lucorum). These closely related species are very similar in their morphology and life-history, but their ranges only partly overlap, raising the question how they are ecologically divergent. I used species distribution modeling (SDM) and machine learning approaches to disentangle their broad habitat preferences. With the help of landscape genomic methods I could show a strong influence of the environment on regions of the genome in both species, and evaluated how potential local adaptation could contribute to differences in their distributions.
Biodiversity is very complex and therefore difficult to comprehensively characterize at all levels of organization (ecosystems, species and genes). In applied conservation prioritization, resources (monetary, personal, time) are often limited, and hence a smart and efficient way of taking quick and informative decisions is essential. One way to tackle these limitations is by using so called "biodiversity surrogates" - measures of biodiversity that hopefully represent other levels of biodiversity as well. I apply this concept using systematic conservation prioritization tools.
An important step will be to include genetic data in prioritization and surrogacy analyses.
Norway and Siberian spruce (Picea abies and Picea obovata) are closely-related sister species, distributed across Eurasia, where Siberian spruce replaces Norway spruce around central Siberia and further to the east. Comparative studies on spatial genetic diversity and introgression in this species-complex are scarce, leaving species delineation blurred, and conservation and breeding actions uninformed. Knowledge about introgression and gene-flow between these species, as well as the spatial pattern of genetic diversity and its environmental correlates will provide key insights into the underlying selective pressures. An improved understanding of the processes driving adaptive variation in these species, and how they may be affected by human activities can benefit future forest conservation management strategies.
In February 2023, I will start a new post-doc project within the "EcoGenomics" Canada project, which is a research program that employs non-invasive fecal collection to monitor Canadian caribou, with a focus on their conservation.
More info will follow!
5) H.Hinneberg, T. Bamann, J.C. Geue, K. Foerster, A. Kupfer, H. A. Thomassen (2022). Truly invasive or simply non-native? Insights from an artificial crested newt hybrid zone. Conservation Science and Practice; DOI:10.1111/csp2.12752
4) J.C. Geue, P.J. Rotter, C. Gross, Z. Benkő, I. Kovács, C. Fântână, J. Veres-Szászka,C. Domșa, E. Baltag, S.J. Daróczi, G.M. Bóné, V.D. Popescu, H.A. Thomassen (2022). Limited reciprocal surrogacy of bird and habitat diversity and inconsistencies in their representation in Romanian protected areas. PLOS ONE; DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0251950
3) M.Glück, J.C. Geue, H.A. Thomassen (2022). Environmental differences explain subtle yet detectable genetic structure in a widespread pollinator. BMC Ecology; DOI: 10.1186/s12862-022-01963-5
2) J.C. Geue and H.A. Thomassen (2020). Unravelling the habitat preferences of two closely related bumble bee species in Eastern Europe. Ecology and Evolution; DOI:10.1002/ece3.6232
1) J.C. Geue, C.I. Vágási, M. Schweizer, P.L. Pap, H.A. Thomassen (2016). Environmental selection is a main driver of divergence in house sparrows Passer domesticus in Romania and Bulgaria. Ecology and Evolution; DOI:10.1002/ece3.2509
1) J.C. Geue and H.A. Thomassen (2021). Biodiversität: Mehr als nur Artenvielfalt. IDM-Themenhefts Info Europa; PDF(in german)
