Understanding the ecological and macroevolutionary drivers of large-scale biodiversity patterns

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My research seeks to understand how ecological and evolutionary factors combine to generate and organize biodiversity over large spatial and temporal scales. We merge phylogenetic, morphometric, ecological, and statistical approaches to test hypotheses about the emergence of biological patterns within clades, within communities, and across geographic landscapes. Work in our lab is focused primarily on detailed empirical study of a macroevolutionary "natural experiment": repeated adaptive radiations of neotropical Anolis lizards (i.e., "anoles"). These lizards provide a unique system for studying the relationship between ecology, geography, and macroevolution because they have diversified repeatedly in both similar and different ecological and biogeographic settings throughout the New World tropics. Over the next several years, research in our lab will address the following questions. How does predation shape adaptive radiations? Competition has long been understood to fuel the process of adaptive radiation, but the role of predation has been much less clear. We will combine field study of predation and competition, laboratory rearing study of life history, and phylogenetic comparative methods to understand how predation and competition interact to shape macroevolutionary patterns of phenotypic diversity. How does the multidimensional niche evolve over macroevolutionary time? Despite the importance of the niche in theoretical models of adaptive radiation, we poorly understand how niche width and niche dimensionality evolve over phylogenetic timescales. Using island radiations that vary in age and maturity, we will use a space-for-time approach to understand how the principal features of the niche evolve during the evolutionary assembly of faunas. Do natural gradients shape Anthropocene community assembly? The impact of habitat conversion on natural ecological communities can vary for reasons that are poorly understood. One possible explanation is that natural ecological gradients may mediate such impacts, resulting in different community responses at different locations along a gradient. We will examine how natural and anthropogenic forces combine to determine the rules of community reassembly by examining how lizard communities are affected by deforestation across replicated ecological gradients on several Caribbean islands. Together, this research will help illuminate the ecological and evolutionary origins of large-scale biodiversity patterns. Insights from this work can help guide efforts to preserve such biodiversity in the face of future anthropogenic change.