Evolutionary geobiology of land plants
Scaly tree fern Cyathaceae in the Mascarenes
Evolutionary geobiology of land plants: the creation of biodiversity in space and time
Research aims
This research project aims to discover the mechanisms and processes creating land plant biodiversity in space and time.
It integrates several research disciplines such as:
- phylogenetics
- biogeography
- population genetics
- distribution and ecological modelling
- taxonomy
The project is innovative and contributes to the current research on global climatic change and the ongoing biodiversity crisis.
Research focus and topics
Current studies focus on selected groups of:
- angiosperms
- liverworts
- and especially ferns - Aspleniaceae, Cyatheaceae, and Polypodiaceae
Major research topics include:
- climatic niche conservation
- assembling of biodiversity on Oceanic islands
- processes of adaptive radiations
- Cretaceous revolutions
The results also contribute to improving our understanding of the taxonomy of poorly understood but species-rich families and genera such as Asplenium.