Understanding the Historical Demography and Current Strength of Inbreeding Depression in Island Scrub-jays

Awardee: Devon DeRaad

Bio:
Devon DeRaad is an evolutionary biologist with a background in museum ornithology. His passion for
interacting with and understanding biodiversity led him to a PhD program at the University of
Kansas, where he defended his dissertation entitled “How and Why Genomes Lie: Case Studies in
Birds of the Pacific Islands” with honors in 2024. His previous work focused on understanding how
genetic diversity is distributed across the globe in a variety of bird lineages, with a special focus on
the evolutionary mechanisms generating discordance across the genome. Moving forward his
research program will continue studying wild bird populations to more deeply understand the
evolutionary mechanisms affecting the speciation process, from start to finish.

Project:
This project will answer urgent, outstanding questions regarding the conservation genetics of the
only single-island endemic bird species native to the lower 48 U.S. states, the Island Scrub-jay
(Aphelocoma insularis). In specific, this project will quantify the strength of inbreeding depression
among Island Scrub-jays and assess how inbreeding varies geographically. This information will
allow us to understand the vulnerability of this population to extinction in the near term, and
determine whether translocation and/or reintroduction efforts should be undertaken to ensure the
long-term conservation of this California endemic species.