Research
The ultimate goal of our research is to understand the role of environmental history in genetic differentiation of populations and the origins of new species. Our team is undertaking new detailed field and laboratory investigations of key aspects of the components of the linked Andes-Amazon system, emphasizing:
- Cenozoic Uplift History of the Tropical Andes, particularly the Western Cordillera
- Cenozoic Paleoclimate and Landscape Evolution in the Western Amazon Lowlands of Brazil and Peru
- Cenozoic Climate Dynamics via isotope-enabled ocean-atmosphere climate modeling of key time slices
- Molecular Genetics of Woody Plant Taxa, carefully chosen to test several fundamental hypotheses about the role of uplift and climate in generation of diversity
- Construction of an Over-arching Modeling Framework linking the evolution of Andean uplift and erosion, Amazon basin creation and infilling, climatic and hydrologic change, nutrient cycling and soil formation, to forest productivity, the generation of ecologic niches, and ultimately to the distribution, extinction, and origin of species.