Research

Overview

Our research is at the interface of evolution, ecology, genomics, and conservation. We strive to understand the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that generate and maintain biodiversity, and how rapid global environmental change affects these processes. We address questions by integrating population genomics, quantitative field methods, controlled experiments, and computational analysis in a variety of taxonomic groups (amphibians, fish, stream insects, birds, mammals, reptiles, and terrestrial insects). Much of our research focuses on freshwater habitats, such as streams, rivers, ponds, wetlands, and lakes. Research in the Funk Lab has been funded by a diversity of agencies and organizations, including the US National Science Foundation, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, the US Forest Service, the US Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Defense, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, The Moore Foundation, and the National Geographic Society. We are an inclusive and supportive lab that firmly believes that diverse people and perspectives strengthen our science, and enrich our lives.

Conservation Genomics and Population Genetics

An important dimension of our research program is conservation genomics, which harnesses population genetics theory and cutting-edge sequencing technology to address a variety of conservation questions. Our lab uses genomic approaches to inform conservation of many species of conservation concern by delineating conservation units, estimating effective population sizes, quantifying adaptive potential, etc., particularly in amphibians as part of AmphibiaGen. Chris is deeply involved in improving the integration of genomics into national and international conservation policy. At the national level, he works extensively with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to advise them how best to incorporate genetic considerations into US Endangered Species Act listing decisions. At the international level, he serves as a member of the IUCN Conservation Genetics Specialist Group, GEO BON Genetic Composition Working Group, and Coalition for Conservation Genetics to advance genetic targets in international conservation policy, most recently focusing on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

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Vulnerability to Climate Change

Climate change is the defining issue of our times. Increasing temperatures and extreme weather events are already impacting people, places, and nature, and these impacts will worsen for decades to come, even under the most optimistic greenhouse gas emission scenarios. A primary research focus of the Funk Lab is to understand taxonomic and spatial variation in vulnerability and resilience to climate change. By identifying which species and populations are most sensitive, we can target conservation efforts appropriately.

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Photo credit: Brenna Forester

Adaptive divergence

Evolutionary biologists have long been interested in understanding the environmental and microevolutionary drivers of adaptive divergence among populations. An important avenue of investigation in the Funk Lab focuses on determining the relative roles of divergent selection, gene flow, and genetic drift in causing adaptive differentiation, as well as the ultimate environmental factors underlying local adaptation. As adaptive differences among populations are an importance source of genetic variation for adapting to rapid environmental change, this area of research naturally segues into the lab's research on vulnerability to climate change.

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Photo credit: Katie Langin

Tropical ecology, evolution, and conservation

Another important component of our research program focuses on discovering, understanding, and conserving tropical biodiversity. The Funk Lab has discovered and described many cryptic frog species in tropical South America, which has made us passionate about trying to understand the mechanisms that cause speciation in “megadiverse” tropical countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. We are particularly fascinated with an extremely speciose group of frogs in the family Strabomantidae.

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Photo credit: W. Chris Funk

Evolution and ecology of infectious disease

Infectious diseases pose an increasing risk to biodiversity. Humans, agricultural species on which we depend, and wildlife have always lived with disease, but this risk is becoming greater due to exponentially increasing global trade, climate change, and other anthropogenic modifications to the environment. Emerging infectious diseases have already devastated amphibian, bat, and many other populations of wildlife in the last few decades. A major research prong of the Funk Lab is to understand disease transmission dynamics, disease resistance, and interactions among the environment, hosts, and their pathogens to inform conservation management of wildlife species impacted by disease.

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Photo credit: Jesse Lewis

Photo credit: W. Chris Funk