THE ADAPTIVE RADIATION OF HAWAIIAN Bidens (ASTERACEAE) IN THE CONTEXT OF OTHER EVOLUTIONARY RADIATIONS
CASUAL SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION
The Hawaiian Islands have played a central role in the development of evolutionary theory, particularly with regard to the factors that promote speciation and adaptive radiation, in part due to their relatively simple and well-understood geologic history. While Hawaiian plant radiations often have exceptionally high species diversity and exhibit extreme morphological and ecological differentiation, they typically display low levels of genetic variation, hindering the ability to use DNA to resolve their evolutionary history. In this seminar, I will present our work on the phylogenetics and phylogenomics of the Hawaiian Bidens (Asteraceae) adaptive radiation to help resolve this apparent paradox in Hawaiian plants. I will then put this group into context of other rapid adaptive radiations of both plants and animals from Hawaii and elsewhere around the world.
Matthew Knope is an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. He received a Bachelors degree in Marine Biology with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1999), a Masters degree in Marine Biology from San Francisco State University (2004), and a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University (2012). Also at Stanford, he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Dept. of Biology (2012), a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Dept. of Geological and Environmental Sciences (2013-2014), and a Lecturer in the Dept. of Biology (2014-2015). Before joining the faculty at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, he was an Assistant Professor of Ecology and Field Biology at the University of San Francisco (2015-2016). He is broadly interested in almost all aspects of biology, but his primary research topics are related to the evolutionary ecology of both marine and terrestrial organisms, in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere. In addition, he is strongly motivated to develop and share innovative teaching methods in the sciences.
[Host: Angelica Crottini, Biogeography and Evolution]
Image credits: Erin Datlof