Wes Larson

Excited to share our new paper on Pacific cod. We used GTseq to track movement of adults and juveniles. Adults from southern stocks move large distances into the Northern Bering sea to feed. Additionally, we showed that juveniles can move > 1000 km from where they were born. tinyurl.com/mryrz5j7

Improved eDNA Primer Enhances Rockfish Species Identification in Alaska A new rockfish-specific genetic tool supports more detailed monitoring of rockfish assemblages.

Check out our latest paper (and accompanying webstory) on development of mtDNA primers for rockfish. We're excited to implement these primers to advance our research on how eDNA can be used to assess rockfish populations, especially in untrawlable habitats. shorturl.at/rpXA2 shorturl.at/EGNtt

We're hiring! Technician position in Juneau, AK to support fisheries genetic work at NOAA. The technician will assist with various projects including eDNA, GBS, epigenetic aging. We are looking for someone with a strong background in molecular biology. Apply here by August 10: shorturl.at/4JgPV

The Pragmatic Sceptic: A Practical Approach for Integrating Environmental DNA Into Marine Stock Assessment and Fisheries Management The ‘omics revolution’ has advanced scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and led to a rapid increase in data that can inform species' population structure, distribution, and abundance. Of th...

Happy to share the latest from the lab. eDNA is emerging as a powerful tool for surveying fish populations. But integration into fisheries stock assessments has been slow and rare. We find that a key barrier is lack of interdisciplinary research teams. #eDNA #FisheriesManagement shorturl.at/bli8S

@gregowens.bsky.social thanks for your help on this one!

Diversification of large-effect loci in a duplicated genomic region leads to complex phenotypes Whole genome duplication provides evolutionary opportunities to increase biological complexity and phenotypic diversity by selective retention of duplicated genes. We identify a small genomic region a...

Quick break from the doom and gloom for science! We're really proud of this one. We found that two major effect loci on duplicated versions of the same ancestral chromosome play a major role in run timing diversity across four species of salmon (pink, chum, sockeye, coho) shorturl.at/GISX2

Quantifying impacts of seabird bycatch using genetic assignment: A case study of black-footed albatross in U.S. fisheries

Check out the latest paper from our lab quantifying stock-specific impacts of bycatch on albatross. We used WGS and GT-seq to assess stock structure and assign birds back to their colonies of origin. Certain colonies were disproportionately represented in bycatch. #congen #genomics shorturl.at/B4q0z

Genetic Diversity in Alaska Red King Crab May Provide Resilience to Climate Change New genetic research on the Alaska red king crab reveals previously undiscovered diversity among different regions, suggesting the species is more resilient to climate change and changing ocean condit...

Happy to be here and excited to rekindle some of the magic of the former platform. To start here's a paper (with media release) that we published recently on population genomics of king crab in Alaska. They are highly structured with evidence of local adaptation.
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Visual abstract for Kelp paper

Excited to announce our work on kelp genomics is now out at Current Biology. Lead by Postdoc extraordinaire Jordan Bemmels, we sequence WGS for 600+ bull and giant kelp across BC and Washington. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kSP93QW8S...