Silva Uusi-Heikkilä
PhD in Evolutionary Ecology. Docent in Evolutionary Biology
silva.uusi-heikkila@utu.fi Natura, yliopistonmäki Turku ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6503-455X |
Evolutionary ecology; Experimental ecology; Molecular biology; Next-generation sequencing; Genomics; Microbiomes.
Equine gut microbiota and responses to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) at the molecular level: FINEBIOME (Finnish eDNA/equine microbiome). Fisheries-induced evolution and adaptive potential.
Currently I am investigating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in horses and how it affects gut microbiota diversity and composition and the function of mitochondria in the gut.
I am also studying the effect of anthropogenic stressors on experimental fish populations. My main focus has been on the effect of size-selective fisheries and during the recent years we have exposed the fish populations to other stressors occurring simultaneously, such as thermal stress, starvation, pollution and infections. In my research group, we have studied the responses at both phenotypic and molecular level (whole genome sequencing, whole genome bisulfate sequencing and RNA sequencing). We also study how thermal stress, hypoxia and genotype affects fish skin microbiota diversity and composition.
Finally, I have studied community ecology by modeling aquatic food webs and their dynamics in response to changes in life-history strategies, stocking and size-selective fishing.
- Implications of size‐selective fisheries on sexual selection (2020)
- Evolutionary Applications
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Size does matter — the eco-evolutionary effects of changing body size in fish (2020)
- Environmental Reviews
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Association Mapping Based on a Common-Garden Migration Experiment Reveals Candidate Genes for Migration Tendency in Brown Trout (2019)
- G3: genes, genomes, genetics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Comparing RADseq and microsatellites for estimating genetic diversity and relatedness Implications for brown trout conservation (2019)
- Ecology and Evolution
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Experimental Size‐Selective Harvesting Affects Behavioral Types of a Social Fish (2019)
- Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Size‐selective harvesting fosters adaptations in mating behaviour and reproductive allocation, affecting sexual selection in fish (2019)
- Journal of Animal Ecology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Size-selective harvesting fosters adaptations in mating behaviour and reproductive allocation, affecting sexual selection in fish (2019)
- Journal of Animal Ecology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Comparison of Migratory and Resident Populations of Brown Trout Reveals Candidate Genes for Migration Tendency (2018)
- Genome Biology and Evolution
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Genome-wide divergence patterns support fine-scaled genetic structuring associated with migration tendency in brown trout (2018)
- Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Relatively large males lower reproductive success in female zebrafish (2018)
- Environmental Biology of Fishes
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



