Atal Saha

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in population genomics at Centre for Coastal Research (CCR), affiliated to the Department of Natural Sciences, University of Agder, Norway.

My current project is about evolutionary and ecological genomics of marine species in Norwegian coastal waters. My research activities primarily involve bioinformatic and statistical analyses of genomic data from NGS sequencing (e.g. ddRAD) coupled with environmental and biological data, for the study of marine ecology and evolution. 

Previously, I did a postdoc at Stockholm University (in the Division of Population Genetics) investigating genomic dynamics over space and time in salmonid (brown trout and Arctic char) metapopulations. My project was based on data from individual whole-genome sequencing and pool-sequencing of groups of individuals. In this work, we studied cryptic sympatry, genetic changes over time, local adaptation, hybridization and introgression in salmonids from mountain freshwater lake systems in Sweden.

In my PhD project, I investigated genetic population structure, cryptic speciation, hybridization and local adaptation, mainly in redfish (plus saithe and Greenland halibut) from the North Atlantic. Analysing data from microsatellite DNA and SNP markers, I found evidence of significant genetic population structure in beaked redfish, saithe and Greenland halibut. My data supported three novel cryptic species in golden redfish complex. A low but statistically significant extent of introgession was estimated in redfish. I also found an indication of local adaptation in groups of beaked redfish. I defended my PhD at University of Tromso and the project was coordinated by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR). During my PhD period, I had a PhD internship at University of Washington. After completion of my PhD, I worked as a research assistant at IMR for a year.

As it is evident, my main research interest is to apply population genomic tools to support sustainable management and conservation of aquatic species.