Ecological and Spatial Change

Change is inevitable and pervasive. We all deal with it daily; as it relates to ourselves, our communities and the world around us. While change is a familiar part of the human experience, it has also shaped the course of life on our planet for millions of years. Shifts in habitat structure, local climate, competitors, resource availability and population demography are just a few of the change-based drivers that initiate, accelerate, and punctuate speciation and extinction. We study change in three major contexts:

Evolution of frog vision following ecological transitions

Using anuran amphibians, we are studying how life history influences the evolution of visual systems 

Evolution and climate adaptation

Using Seychelles frogs and South African lizards, we are studying how organismal traits mediate evolutionary trajectories to climate adaptation

Range expansion and evolution

Using a variety of amphibian and reptile systems, we are exploring how range expansion influences genome evolution