|
Fields of study
Divergence and speciation of natural populations
Research interests
I study the ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for divergence among populations and species. Specifically I have studied how natural selection and genetic drift contribute to divergence at different scales of space and time (mainly Neogene and Quaternary effects in the New World). I am interested in integrative research that combines data from phylogeography, ecology, morphology, and behavior and aims for a holistic description of divergence processes. I have mainly worked with birds, but am broadly interested in natural populations, specifically in the highlands of the western U.S. and Latin America.
Mentor
L. Lacey Knowles
Select Publications
Berg, E.C., J.E. McCormack and T.B. Smith. Test of an adaptive hypothesis for egg speckling along an elevational gradient in a population of Mexican jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina). Journal of Avian Biology (in press).
McCormack, J.E., H. Huang and L.L. Knowles. Sky islands. In R.G. Gillespie and D. Clague (eds.) Encyclopedia of Islands. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA (in press).
McCormack, J.E. and J.L. Brown. 2008. Mexican jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina). In A. Poole (ed.) The Birds of North America Online. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY.
McCormack, J.E. and T.B. Smith. 2008. Niche expansion leads to small-scale adaptive divergence along an elevation gradient in a medium-sized passerine bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 275:2155-2164.
McCormack, J.E., B.S. Bowen and T.B. Smith. 2008. Integrating paleoecology and genetics of bird populations in two sky island archipelagos. BMC Biology 6:28.
McCormack, J.E., A.T. Peterson, E. Bonaccorso and T.B. Smith. 2008. Speciation in the highlands of Mexico: genetic and phenotypic differentiation in the Mexican jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina). Molecular Ecology 17: 2505-2521.
Milá, B., J.E. McCormack, G. Castañeda, T.B. Smith and R.K. Wayne. 2007. Recent postglacial range expansion drives the rapid diversification of a songbird lineage in the genus Junco. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274:2653-2660.
McCormack, J.E., P. Jablonski and J.L. Brown. 2007. Producer-scrounger roles and the effect of dominance on preferential joining in a free-living group of Mexican jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina). Behaviour 144:967-982.
McCormack, J.E., G. Castañeda-Guayasamin and G. Levandoski. 2007. Sierra Santa Rosa: an oasis of bird diversity in arid northern Mexico. Ornitología Neotropical 18:369-377.
McCormack, J.E., G. Castañeda Guayasamin, B. Milá and F. Heredia-Pineda. 2005. Slate-throated redstarts (Myioborus miniatus) breeding in Maderas del Carmen, Coahuila, Mexico. Southwestern Naturalist 50:501-503.
Avilés, L., J. McCormack, A. Cutter and T. Bukowski. 2000. Precise, highly female-biased sex ratios in a social spider. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 267:1445-1449.
|
