My research emphasizes the use of molecular biological techniques to study population genetics and evolutionary histories of exploited marine vertebrate species, especially small cetaceans.  In particular, we use techniques such as DNA sequencing and microsatellite DNA analyses to examine and infer the degree of gene flow and mixing among cetacean populations.  Ongoing projects focus on bottlenose dolphins along the US Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico, harbor porpoises and common dolphin populations in the Northwest Atlantic, and Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.  Each of these species suffers from human-induced mortality due to entanglement in fishing gear.  Our studies provide information to improve their conservation and management.

    Other areas of focus include evolutionary genetics of small cetaceans, using molecular data to examine the evolutionary relationships among porpoise and dolphin species.  Most recently we have been applying AFLP methods to look at phylogenetic relationships among members of the dolphin subfamily Delphininae and also to discover species specific markers that can aid in identification of a sample.  We often provide genetic species identifications to aid stranding networks, observer programs, and marine forensics cases.  We also seek to develop and apply new molecular methods to examine relatedness among populations and individuals and to study social structures and breeding structures in a variety of cetacean species.

Accurate species identification coupled with broader understandings of the relationships among populations and among individuals within populations will all provide a better basis for assessing the long-term viability of populations and the impacts of human activities on those populations.

Selected publications:

• Tolley KA & PE Rosel. 2006 Demographic history of harbour porpoises in the eastern North Atlantic inferred through mtDNA sequences. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 347:297-308.
• Adams, L & PE Rosel. 2006. Population structure of the Atlantic spotted dolphin, Stenella frontalis, in the Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic. Marine Biology 148:671-681.

• Sellas, A, RS Wells & PE Rosel. 2005. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyses reveal fine scale geographic structure in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Gulf of Mexico. Conservation Genetics 6:715-728.

• Rosel, PE, V. Forgetta & K. Dewar. 2005. Isolation and characterization of twelve polymorphic microsatellite markers in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Molecular Ecology Notes 5:830-833.

• Kingston, S & PE Rosel. 2004. Determining genetic differentiation among recently diverged delphinid taxa using amplified fragment length polymorphism markers. Journal of Heredity 95(1):1-10.

• Rosel, PE. 2003. PCR-based sex determination in Odontocete cetaceans. Conservation Genetics 4: 647-649.

• Rosel, PE, A Frantzis, C Lockyer, & A Komnenou. 2003. The source of Aegean Sea harbour porpoises. Marine Ecology Progress Series 247: 257-261.

• Rosel, PE & TD Kocher. 2002. Genetic identification of digested larval and juvenile cod in stomachs of predatory fish species. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 267 (1):75-88.

• Silvers, LE, PE Rosel & DR Salden. 2001. Confirmation of a North Pacific humpback whale placenta by DNA sequence analysis. Canadian Journal of Zoology 80(6): 1141-1144.

• Rosel, PE & RR Reeves. 2000. Genetic and demographic considerations for the conservation of river cetaceans. Pages 144-152 in Biology and Conservation of Freshwater Cetaceans in Asia, RR Reeves, BD Smith,& T Kasuya (Eds.). Occasional Papers of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No. 23. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland.

• Rosel, PE, SC France, JY Wang, & TD Kocher. 1999. Genetic structure of harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena, populations in the Northwest Atlantic based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Molecular Ecology 8(12):S42-S54.

• Rosel, PE & L Rojas-Bracho. 1999. Mitochondrial DNA variation in the critically endangered vaquita, Phocoena sinus. Marine Mammal Science 15(4): 990-1003.

• Rosel, PE, MG Haygood & WF Perrin. 1995. Phylogenetic relationships among the true porpoises (Cetacea: Phocoenidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 4(4): 463-474.

• Rosel, PE, AE Dizon & JE Heyning. 1994. Genetic analysis of sympatric morphotypes of common dolphins (genus Delphinus). Marine Biology 119:159-167.

Feel free to contact me at this address:
NOAA Fisheries, SEFSC/Estuarine Habitats and Coastal Fisheries Center, 646 Cajundome Blvd., Lafayette, LA 70506
Patricia.Rosel@noaa.gov, Telephone: (337) 291-2123.