I’m a doctoral student at UCB working under advisement of Brent Mishler. My primary research interests lie in the field of plant evolution and community ecology, in which I to explore patterns of moss community assembly in a phylogenetic framework. By unifying history, traits and ecological processes that shape the structure of moss communities, we can gain a better understanding of patterns of plant biodiversity and why certain lineages coexist and others don’t.
My research questions at large include:
- What patterns of phylo-community structure are observed at different taxonomic scales along an elevation gradient?
- What biotic/abiotic factors may influence the phenotypic pattern in the community?
- Does desiccation tolerance act as an environmental filtering in the community?
- What is the history of the individual traits?
- What is the phylo-alpha-beta diversity along the elevational gradient?
For the Dimension’s project, I will be generating a worldwide phylogeny of Syntrichia with representatives from all major terminal clades with the goals:
1) to create a list of widely recognized species;
2) to identify the major clades in Syntrichia, their distribution;
3) to determine the backbone phylogeny of Syntrichia for further studies in trait evolution, biogeography and eco-physiology.
In addition, I would like to investigate the species of Syntrichia and its relatives within the subfamily Pottioideae in Chile, including aspects of trait evolution and biogeography in order to gain insight into their evolution and diversification.
Current Students
Kevin Gonzalez
I am a 4th-year Environmental Science major native to northern Mexico. I joined the lab in the spring
semester of 2019 under the mentorship of Javier Jauregui. I am heavily interested in population and communication ecology as well as different plant species and the roles they play in sustaining our environment. Particularly, I am extremely interested in how often disregarded plant species such as the everyday moss and lichen keep ecosystem in balance by working individually or cooperatively. In the Bryolab, I am currently assisting Javier in developing a taxonomic review through morphological analysis of various herbarium specimens of South American moss, Syntrichia.