University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Advisor

L. Lacey Knowles

Research interests

My general research interests lie around three main topics: (1) diversification processes and evolutionary mechanisms underlying high tropical diversity, (2) evolutionary responses to environmental heterogeneity, and (3) long-term stability of ecological niches and its relationship to evolutionary limits of geographic ranges. To address these questions, I combine analyses of molecular data from Sanger and Next-Generation sequencing and a combination of tools traditionally used in the fields of landscape genetics, phylogeography, species distribution modeling, and GIS. One aspect of my research focuses on how taxon-specific ecologies and geographic settings influence evolutionary responses of tropical species to spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity. A related area of interest I have worked in, is the influence of landscape fragmentation and availability of long-term corridors in structuring patterns of genetic diversity at various spatial and temporal scales. I am also interested in advancing analytical approaches that more explicitly incorporate geography into phylogeographic studies. This research involves the integration of spatial and distribution modeling with phylogeographic analyses. As part of my work in this area, I collaborated with Lacey to develop an innovative approach that combines ecological, genetic, and demographic modeling to uncover the evolutionary consequences of climate-induced distributional shifts. Together these projects are expected to contribute to our understanding of the circumstances under which climatic and other environmental changes threaten species survival or promote their differentiation, and to improve available tools for the analysis of population differentiation and diversification.

UM affiliation

• Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Museum of Zoology
• College of Literature, Science, and the Arts