DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Austral origins and Pacific radiations: Tracing transitions in the biogeography, morphology, and ecology of the Asteliaceae (Asparagales)

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Plants that live on islands must have ways to get from one place to the other. This project focuses on a group of flowering plants that live on islands in the Pacific Ocean, members of the family Asteliaceae. DNA sequences will be used to determine where the closest relatives of the Asteliaceae live, which will identify where the plants came from before arriving in their island habitats. From this study, it will be possible to determine the number of times the plants have dispersed over water, as well as the directions of long-distance dispersal. Plant structures will be investigated to identify any that might have helped the plants to move long distances over the ocean, and ecological traits will be studied to determine which ones may have permitted the plants to survive once they had arrived at their destination. This research will expand our understanding of the evolutionary history of plants of the Pacific and of the Southern Hemisphere, and will illuminate patterns of long-distance dispersal in these regions. Long-distance dispersal clearly determines which plants might arrive on a particular island. It is also important to test whether the plant characteristics thought to help such dispersal really correlate with the movement of the plants from one island to the next. This research uses DNA-based evidence to test such correlations in the Asteliaceae. This represents a significant first step in identifying the traits that have influenced dispersal success within the region and leads to a greater understanding of the origins and diversification patterns of both continental and island biota.