Current research
Ice Age connections between New Zealand and Australian birds
The Pleistocene was a time of significant environmental change in New Zealand; new habitats like grasslands and tussocks became available as a result of the cooling climate. Did Australian birds, already adapted to more open conditions, take advantage of these changes and establish populations in New Zealand? I use mitogenomes and ancient DNA to explore what habitat preferences can tell us about bird speciation events during the Pleistocene.
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.
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 birds 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 have changed, and will continue to change, over time.
