Welcome to my research page! Below I outline some of the projects I am currenty working on:
How are liverwort species genetic diversity structured in space?
Liverworts are small plants that are rarely more than one inch long. Yet, they can occur in large areas. Are liverworts capable of maintaining continuous gene flow through the geographical space? How different are their populations? Have they evolved adaptations to the different environments they inhabit?
In this proyect, I am studying these questions in Calsterella californica a complex thalloid liverwort that in common in the West coast of Northamerica. This work is funded by the California Conservation Genomics Project, and is part of a multidisciplinary conservation effort.
Modeling the range evolution of liverworts in Aytoniaceae.
Studying the range evolution of widespread lineages is a challenging task because it requires to account for an exponentially large number of states (thus increasing the computational burden). Similarly, the older a lineage is, the more geological changes they have experienced. As Earth changes, so do the probability of biogeographic events like dispersal. To study the biogeographic history of Aytoniaceae, a lineage of liverowrts that arose in the Cretaceous and has species with a worldwide range, I developped and implemented in RevBayes the Paleogeogrpahically Aware (PAW) GeoSSE + J model of range evolution. Using this model results in parameter estimated that make biological sense and confirm our suspicion that, even for vagile spore-dispersed organisms, distance matters! But when it comes to reconstructing the biogeographic history of this group, we fin a lot of uncertainty in most nodes.
Insights from the fossil record on early land plants evolution
I am interested in the unique insight that the fossil record provide about the evolution of life. I am interested in understanding the impact that including the fossil record in our phylogenetic inferences. I am currently working on two simulations studies. (1) I want to know whether or not and to what extent including fossil terminals allows us to infer accurate phylogenetic relationships among extant taxa. And (2) I am working on sampling schemes of extant taxa that optimize our inferential power of deep divergences. I aim to use these methodological insights to study the evolution of bryophyte relationships.
Spatial phylogenetics of the vascular plants of Baja California
I am interested in the intersection of phylogenetics and biogeography and its implications for conservation. I am tehrefore interested in the group of methods known as spatial phylogenetics as I think they contribute to better informed conservation decisions but can also help to disentangle geographical patterns that result from shared historical events.
This is a highly collaborative project with several researchers in San Diego State University and CONABIO. We are using an extraordinary database of the vascular flora of Baja California to study the patterns of its phylogenetic diversity. This project will contribute to our understanding of the Baja flora evolution, and will offer useful insight for conservation purposes.
Geographic patterns of Mexican liverworts
Liverworts are a group of inconspicous but fascinating plants. They have a set of characteristics that ecologically differentiate them from “vascular plants” and make it adventurous to extrapolate our knowledge of vascular plant distribution to this group. Unfortunately, our understanding of the systematics and diversity of this group is requires a lot of work, and any work addressing the diversity patterns of this group will be incomplete. Even if incomplete, early efforts on understanding the patterns in the geography and evolution of this group can help us focus our efforts in advancing the study of this group. In this project, I am using phylogenetic and niche modelling tools on herbarium generated datasets to take a glimpse on the diversity of Mexican liverworts. Take a look of this map, where you can explore the liverwort collections that existed until 2019 for Mexico.