Patterns of Phylogenetic Diversity Within & Across Communities

Understanding the forces that influence the dynamic process of community assembly remains a critical challenge in community ecology. Although both ecological (e.g. competitive exclusion, environmental filtering) and historical processes (e.g. speciation, dispersal) are considered central to the assembly process, both can give rise to similar patterns, complicating efforts to link pattern and process. In an NSF-funded collaboration with Robert Laport at the University of Colorado Boulder, we are combining phylogenetic comparative methods and plant occurrence data from the National Ecological Observatory Network to better understand how historical and ecological processes shape plant communities.
Supported by NSF-EF 1550813
Associated publications:
Ng, J., Weaver, W.N. and Laport, R.G. 2019. Testing Darwin's Naturalization Conundrum using phylogenetic relationships: generalizable patterns across disparate communities? Diversity and Distributions. in press
Gaynor, M.L., Ng, J. and Laport, R.G. 2018. Phylogenetic structure of plant communities: are polyploids distantly related to co-occurring diploids? Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 6:52
Laport R.G. and Ng J. 2017. Out of one many: the biodiversity considerations of polyploidy. American Journal of Botany. 104(8): 1-3
Ng, J., Weaver, W.N. and Laport, R.G. 2019. Testing Darwin's Naturalization Conundrum using phylogenetic relationships: generalizable patterns across disparate communities? Diversity and Distributions. in press
Gaynor, M.L., Ng, J. and Laport, R.G. 2018. Phylogenetic structure of plant communities: are polyploids distantly related to co-occurring diploids? Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 6:52
Laport R.G. and Ng J. 2017. Out of one many: the biodiversity considerations of polyploidy. American Journal of Botany. 104(8): 1-3