Thomas Lab

Natural environments are inherently dynamic, and yet are currently facing unprecedented rates of change in climate, land use, and other byproducts of human activity. How species and biological communities respond to these forces--and how we respond to our understanding of these patterns--will shape the future of biodiversity. Plants, forming the foundation of terrestrial ecosystems and the majority of biomass on earth, are particularly central to this question.

Under this broad impetus, our lab asks questions such as, What can plant traits, habitat preferences, genetic resources, and evolutionary history tell us about different species' vulnerability or resilience in the face of global change? How will species migration and the reshuffling of plant communities impact species interactions? What can past eras of environmental upheaval tell us about this one? We're especially interested in the challenges and constraints faced by plants adapted to sensitive alpine and arid environments, which have produced a fascinating array of plant diversity over millions of years of evolution.

Our research leverages the wealth of available data (e.g. biogeographical observations, climate datasets, satellite imagery, trait and genetic databases, phylogenies, herbarium specimens) and the power of ecological and macroevolutionary modeling to make inferences about the past and future trajectories of plant communities. We also aim to generate new data where needed (e.g. phylogenomic datasets) and to combine these approaches with empirical, field-based observation to tackle the complexity of global change impacts on alpine plants.

If you're interested in learning about and/or working on any of these questions and approaches, reach out!