Long-term Sabbatical

Geography, phylogeny, and population: an evolutionary synthesis

PI(s): Michael S Rosenberg (Arizona State University)
Start Date: 1-Sep-2009
End Date: 30-Apr-2010
Keywords: population genetics, phylogenetics, biogeography, landscape ecology

A confluence of disparate disciplines is occurring within evolutionary biology as the fields of population genetics, landscape ecology, phylogenetics, and biogeography (particularly in the form of ecological niche modeling) all shift more and more toward describing evolutionary pattern and process with respect to both historical and modern geographic space and structure. In recent years, population genetics and landscape ecology have merged to create a trans-discipline known as landscape genetics (Manel et al. 2003; Storfer et al. 2007), while phylogenetics and biogeography have merged to create a trans-discipline known as phylogeography (Avise 2000). Research in landscape genetics and phylogeography are often focused on similar questions, but appear to differ in their approach to elucidating answers and the chronological and geographic scales of study. My sabbatical project is the exploration of the goals, methods, and relationships among these disciplines and the production of a framework for the broad synthesis of these still largely disparate research areas within a single temporal-spatial research paradigm.

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