Sinead Collins
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 8657
- Email: s.collins@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
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Rm. 101, Ashworth Building
- City
- Post code
Background
1995-1999 Bachelor of Science, Honors in Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2000-2005 Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2005-2007 Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding, Cologne, Germany
2007-2010 NERC Research Fellow, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
2010-2015 Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh
Research summary
http://www.smallbutmighty.bio.ed.ac.uk/
I use experimental evolution in freshwater and marine unicellular algae (Chlamydomonas; Ostreococcus), along with studies of analogous natural microalgal populations, to study how classical adaptive processes (selective sweeps, adaptive walks) are affected by environmental complexity. Complex environments may be those that change at different rates (glacial-interglacial cycles vs the current rate of global change), that involve many concurrent changes (changes in temperature and light levels and carbon levels), or that involve changes in competition and adaptation at the same time (changes in the species composition of communities on the same timescale as the evolution of a given species). Many aspects of this work are used, either in models or in collaborative experiments using marine algae, to understand better how phytoplankton populations may respond to global change.
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Habitat preference and trend in relative abundance of common minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in Skjálfandi Bay, Iceland
In:
The Journal Of Cetacean Research and Management
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
Thermal trait variation may buffer Southern Ocean phytoplankton from anthropogenic warming
(13 pages)
In:
Global Change Biology, vol. 28, pp. 5755-5767
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16329
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The need for unrealistic experiments in global change biology
(17 pages)
In:
Current Opinion in Microbiology, vol. 68
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2022.102151
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Rapid evolution allows coexistence of highly divergent lineages within the same niche
(14 pages)
In:
Ecology Letters, vol. 25, pp. 1839-1853
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14061
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Letter (Published) -
Predictability of thermal fluctuations influences functional traits of a cosmopolitan marine diatom
(10 pages)
In:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, vol. 289
DOI: https://doi.org/0.1098/rspb.2021.2581
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Mucospheres produced by a mixotrophic protist impact ocean carbon cycling
(15 pages)
In:
Nature Communications, vol. 13
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28867-8
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
A high-throughput assay for quantifying phenotypic traits of microalgae
(14 pages)
In:
Frontiers in Microbiology, vol. 12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.706235
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Biodiversity of marine microbes is safeguarded by phenotypic heterogeneity in ecological traits
(18 pages)
In:
PLoS ONE, vol. 16
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254799
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Growth strategies of a model picoplankter depend on social milieu and pCO2
(9 pages)
In:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, vol. 288
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1154
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The evolution of trait correlations constrains phenotypic adaptation to high CO 2 in a eukaryotic alga
(9 pages)
In:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, vol. 288
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0940
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Selective constraints on global plankton dispersal
(7 pages)
In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), vol. 118
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007388118
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The role of changes in environmental quality in multitrait plastic responses to environmental and social change in the model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
(13 pages)
In:
Ecology and Evolution, vol. 11, pp. 1888-1901
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7179
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Surviving heatwaves: Thermal experience predicts life and death in a Southern Ocean diatom
(44 pages)
In:
Frontiers in Marine Science, vol. 8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.600343
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Reduced growth with increased quotas of particulate organic and inorganic carbon in the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi under future ocean climate change conditions
(19 pages)
In:
Biogeosciences, vol. 17, pp. 6357-6375
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6357-2020
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Microbial evolutionary strategies in a dynamic ocean
In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1919332117
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Quality–quantity trade-offs drive functional trait evolution in a model microalgal ‘climate change winner’
In:
Ecology Letters
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13478
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Evolution, microbes, and changing ocean conditions
(28 pages)
In:
Annual Review of Marine Science, vol. 12, pp. 181-208
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010318-095311
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (Published) -
Considering the role of adaptive evolution in models of the ocean and climate system
(19 pages)
In:
Journal of Advances in Modelling Earth Systems (JAMES), vol. 11, pp. 3343-3361
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018MS001452
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Company matters: The presence of other genotypes alters traits and intraspecific selection in an Arctic diatom under climate change
In:
Global Change Biology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14675
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Experimental strategies to assess the biological ramifications of multiple drivers of global ocean change-A review
(23 pages)
In:
Global Change Biology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14102
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)