Taxonomy and
Systematics |
Phylogeography of Reptiles and Amphibians of the Sunda Shelf
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Impact of Historic and Contemporary Disturbance on Genetic Structure
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Almost every aspect of biology is built upon a foundation of accurately identifying species and their interrelationships. Moreover, taxonomic decisions can profoundly influence both biological inference and conservation practices. However, delimiting species boundaries is still one of the greatest challenges (and debates) in biology.
A large percentage of the taxa I work with are undescribed and a portion of my work is dedicated to identifying and describing new species, delimiting species boundaries, and illustrating their place in the tree of life |
With astounding levels of biodiveristy and a complex geologic history, the Sunda Shelf and its constituent islands form an amazing arena to study phylogeography and the processes that drive the formation of biodiversity. It is not a coincidence that this region inspired Wallace's thinking on the process of natural selection and led to some of the first articulated thoughts on the nature of how and why organisms occur where they do.
Along with my fellow lab members and collaborators, our work on the Sunda Shelf has produced the largest contemporary collection of reptiles an amphibians from Java and Sumatra, two islands that remain biologically under explored and consequently underrepresented in phylogeographic studies. With this sampling we are among the first to examine the phylogeographic relationships of these taxa across the region as a whole. |
I am using ddRADseq to investigate how volcanic eruptions and the recent landscape scale deforestation shaped the distribution patterns of genetic diversity on the island of Sumatra.
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