Current research
Evolutionary impacts of human settlement on New Zealand geckos
Humans have had significant impacts on environments everywhere; New Zealand's herpetofauna is not exempt, but these impacts remain understudied. What did the prehuman distribution of geckos and skinks look like prior to anthropogenic habitat modification?
The fossil record of these organisms can provide useful context, but no clear morphological method exists to discriminate extinct gecko species. We aim to develop geometric morphometric measurements to enable species identification. Then, we will explore the evolutionary history of these species using analysis of ancient DNA. How many species went extinct after human arrival? Finally, comparison of extinct and extant material and sequences will allow us to determine extinction rates and the extent to which living species are composed of morphologically relict populations.
Climate change and changing distributions: past, present, and future
Although a species' range is a result of many factors, climate is a key component in delimiting distributions. This is particularly relevant today due to the impacts humans have had on the climate, but great climate change was also associated with the beginning and end of the Pleistocene. What can prehistoric climate change tell us about the responses of animals to the climate change of today? I combine ecological and climate data to develop models that aim to describe how the distributions of New Zealand birds, frogs, skinks, and geckos have changed, and will continue to change, over time.
Prehistoric demographics of New Zealand's birds
The sweeping changes in the landscape of New Zealand that we associate with the Pleistocene, the wide grass- and shrubland, the fragmented, reduced forests, the thundering glaciers forever changed the ecology and evolution of New Zealand's plants and animals. Forest birds, for example, are often assumed to have been relegated to scattered, fragmented patches of forest. How did these changes affect birds living in open habitats, though? What about birds living in wetlands, or on the coast? I use whole genome NGS data to explore questions about the variable responses of different ecotypes to the Ice Age.
