Welcome!

We are botanists at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor!

News

April 29th, 2025
Please share with anyone who might be interested: applications for the graduate program at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan will be open between early September and December 1st, 2025, with activities starting in August 2026.

I’m looking for a PhD student to join the lab this year! Our work is mostly focused on systematics and functional biogeography of angiosperms. More details can be found on the department’s website https://lsa.umich.edu/eeb/graduates/prospective-students/eeb-application-information.html

Prospective students are advised to answer the questionnaire on this link before emailing me.

Thank you!

Our research

Currently, research in our lab is focused on two key areas:

Phylogeny of Myrteae – Neotropical Myrtaceae Working Group (2024) Am.J.Botany

Systematics, evolution, and ecology of Myrtales

We investigate plant ecology and evolution in under-researched tropical regions, with a particular focus on lineages within the order Myrtales (which includes plants such as guavas, pomegranates, and cloves). We use a range of methods and data including trait measurements, biogeographical analyses and phylogenetic inferences to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the environment has influenced the evolution of this plant group and how different Myrtales lineages are related to one another.

Linking seed dispersal traits and climatic niche evolution in plants - modified from Vasconcelos et al. (2023) J. Biogeography

Discovering the rules of plant biogeography using a trait-based approach

We utilize natural history collections and trait characterization tools to gather large sets of occurrence data and functional traits. These datasets are then combined with molecular phylogenies and phylogenetic comparative methods to quantify the correlation between traits and environments throughout the evolution of flowering plants. Our goal is to utilize trait-environment correlation analyses to uncover general patterns in plant biogeography by measuring how unrelated plant lineages have evolved similar traits in response to a specific environment.