| dc.description.abstract | Due to a concerning decline in population abundance, the European lobster (Homarus gammarus) has become a vulnerable species in Norway. In response, policymakers have established lobster sanctuaries where catch is prohibited, and biologists closely monitor the recovery of local abundance and population structure. Genetic tools are powerful instruments both for designing and evaluating the impact of such sanctuaries, in part because genetic tools permit non-lethal sampling where more traditional methods may not. Still, any tool applied in monitoring must be reliably evaluated before its potential benefits can be weighed against its cost. In this thesis, two relatively novel genetic methods were evaluated with a focus on their potential application in lobster monitoring in Norway: a novel epigenetic age estimation tool and a multipurpose panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) applied as a tool to detect hybridisation with an invasive species, the American lobster (H. americanus). The epigenetic ageing tool was evaluated by testing its ability to accurately predict the longitudinal difference in age between repeated captures of the same lobster, with samples sourced from a lobster sanctuary long-term monitoring program. The genetic tool for detecting hybridisation with H. americanus was evaluated in silico, by developing a pipeline for simulating the SNP panel; this enabled testing its ability to detect hypothetical hybrids that have not been observed in the wild. The epigenetic ageing method mis-estimated differences in age, but did so systematically, which pointed to useful avenues for future development of epigenetic ageing in lobsters. The SNP panel simulations, on the other hand, were successful in demonstrating that when applied as a tool for detecting hybrids, the multipurpose SNP panel is more sensitive than what has previously been shown with only empirical data. For both these genetic tools, this thesis thereby points to avenues of future research and could contribute to the eventual use of the genetic tools in lobster monitoring. | |
