About

We study the origin, maintenance, and resilience of biodiversity in an ever-changing world. Our projects take place in the Tropics and California.

Research topics

• Geography
• Political Science
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Data science
• Evolutionary biology
• Ecology
• Medicine
• Engineering
• Engineering ethics
• Environmental health
• Surgery
• Genetics

Selected publications

• When the sand blossoms: Phylogeny, trait evolution, and geography of speciation in <i>Linanthus</i>

  American Journal of Botany · 2025-02-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  PREMISE: Understanding how plants successfully diversified in novel environments is a central question in evolutionary biology. Linanthus occurs in arid areas of western North America and exhibits extensive floral trait variation, multiple color polymorphisms, differences in blooming time, and variation in life history strategies. We reconstructed the evolutionary history of this genus. METHODS: We generated restriction-site associated (ddRAD) sequences for 180 individuals and target capture (TC) sequences for 63 individuals, with complete species sampling. Using maximum likelihood and pseudo-coalescent approaches, we inferred phylogenies of Linanthus and used them to model the evolution of phenotypic traits and investigate the genus's geographic speciation history. RESULTS: Relationships are consistent and well supported with both ddRAD and TC data. Most species are monophyletic despite extensive local sympatry and range overlap, suggesting strong isolating barriers. The non-monophyly of the night-blooming and perennial species may be due to rapid speciation or cryptic diversity. Perenniality likely evolved from annuality, a rare shift in angiosperms. Night-blooming evolved three times independently. Flower color polymorphism is an evolutionarily labile trait that is likely ancestral. No single geographic mode of speciation characterizes this diversification, but most species overlap in range, which suggests that they evolved in parapatry. CONCLUSIONS: Our results illustrate the complexity of phylogenetic inference for recent radiations, even with multiple sources of genomic data and extensive sampling. This analysis provides a foundation for understanding aridity adaptations, such as evolution of flower color polymorphisms, night-blooming, and perenniality, as well as speciation mechanisms.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Goldilocks effect drives plant diversification on middle-aged Hawaiian islands

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-12-19

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Islands are ideal mesocosms for studying dispersal, speciation, and extinction, but our understanding of insular radiations has long been limited by the difficulty of estimating the timing and tempo of island evolution in the absence of fossils and methods that explicitly account for the role of paleogeography in diversification. We introduce a new generalizable model, TimeFIG, which jointly infers paleogeographically-informed biogeographic rates, ancestral species ranges, and divergence times without using fossils. Using TimeFIG, we reconstruct the phylogeny of Hawaiian Kadua, an ecomorphologically diverse but understudied plant lineage in the coffee family (Rubiaceae), and estimate dispersal, speciation, and extinction rates simultaneously with divergence times and ancestral ranges. Our results support a range of colonization times, either corresponding with the rise of the oldest modern island, Kaua ’ i, or with older now-eroded, northwestern islands. We detect strong effects of island isolation on dispersal rates, and find highest diversification rates when islands are “middle-aged” (i.e., Goldilocks effect). Our unified spatiotemporal framework unlocks new possibilities for historical biogeography, enabling rigorous tests of foundational hypotheses in island biology and evolutionary theory.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Genomic Perspective on Species Delimitation

  Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics · 2025-09-03 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Genomic species delimitation is transforming how we understand and define species by enabling a process-oriented and efficient approach to identifying species boundaries. This review outlines the two key steps in genomic species delimitation: ( a ) discovering species-level units and ( b ) assessing their validity. Validity can be evaluated by a diversity of approaches, including applying the multispecies coalescent to delineate the population–species boundary and using estimated gene flow as a proxy for reproductive isolation. We illustrate the utility of these methods across the tree of life through a comprehensive review of published articles and case studies on birds, siphonophores, and bacteria. Despite the many benefits of genomic species delimitation, challenges remain. In particular, genomic divergence does not always accurately reflect ecological divergence and reproductive barriers, and genome heterogeneity can complicate the overall understanding of genetic divergence. We discuss these challenges and potential solutions.

  PublisherDOI

• Scientific diasporas can accelerate the implementation of global biodiversity goals

  Nature Reviews Biodiversity · 2025-05-13

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Plant genome sequencing needs to go tropical

  Nature Reviews Biodiversity · 2025-08-19 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Assessing Biocultural Diversity Across Scales Using Ecological Indicators

  Ecological Indicators · 2025-05-26 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  • We propose an indicator of biocultural diversity combining vertebrate richness and cultural data like UNESCO Heritage Sites. • Ecological indices like Shannon and Simpson can be adapted to quantify biocultural diversity. • Correlations between biodiversity and cultural diversity are found at national but not ecoregional scales. • Orinoquia and Amazonia are Colombia’s most biodiverse ecoregions, while the Caribbean ranks highest in cultural diversity. • Valledupar emerged as the most biocultural diverse. municipality in Colombia. Despite considerable efforts to promote biocultural diversity as a conservation objective, the spatial correlation between cultural and biological diversities, as well as its variation across geographic scales, remains unclear. In this study, we used Colombia as a case study to examine the relationships between biodiversity and cultural diversity at both national and ecoregional scales. Using municipality as the unit of analysis, we gathered data on a range of biological and cultural variables. We quantified six biodiversity indicators–species richness of freshwater fishes, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and number of ecosystems. For cultural diversity, we used seven indicators: music festivals, Indigenous reserves, Afro-Colombian lands, UNESCO World Heritage sites, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage sites, museums, and native languages, as proxies for institutionalized cultural diversity. Diversity metrics adapted from ecology, including the Shannon Diversity Index (SDI) and the Inverse-Simpson Diversity Index (InvSDI), were used to calculate both biodiversity and cultural diversity at national and ecoregional scales. Our results suggest that biodiversity and cultural diversity are partially positively correlated at the national scale, as indicated by the InvSDI, which incorporates cultural data that the SDI omits. However, at the ecoregional scale, we found no consistent correlation, though both positive and negative trends emerged. This study presents a methodological innovation for quantifying biocultural diversity and raises important questions for future research on the connections between nature and culture.

  PublisherDOI

• Nearly half of Colombian artisan craft plant species lack national and international vulnerability assessments

  Ecosystems and People · 2024-11-05 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Humanity has maintained cultural connections with our environments from time immemorial. Plants and artisan crafts are a prime example, as craft purpose, skill, design and species used can vary greatly between communities and the loss of a critical plant species can result in a loss of access to cultural craft practices. To mitigate global biodiversity loss, conservationists are faced with the challenge of assessing species vulnerability to extinction and prioritizing species for conservation funding using information instruments, like the IUCN red list. This process does not necessarily consider a species’ cultural importance. In this paper, we address this gap for plant species used in artisan crafts in Colombia. We aim to answer the following: (1) how represented are endemic species in artisan crafts; (2) how threatened are artisan craft species according to (a) international and (b) national vulnerability status? We used the number of species-associated common names as a proxy for cultural awareness. We found that continentally regional species were far more represented in Colombian artisan crafts than national endemics. We also found a strong positive relationship between the number of common names and national vulnerability assessment status, but no statistically significant relationship for international vulnerability status. Based on our results, well-known plants used in Colombian artisan crafts are more likely to be assessed nationally than internationally. While the IUCN is thorough in their recommendations, more can be done to prioritize the inclusion of conservation assessments for species based on their contributions to cultural diversity.

  PublisherDOI

• Toward Sustainable Biocultural Ecotourism: An Integrated Spatial Analysis of Cultural and Biodiversity Richness in Colombia

  People and Nature · 2024-11-25 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Ecotourism plays a vital role in both economic development and depending on the scale, it can also aid environmental conservation. Ecotourism planning often considers culture‐based and nature‐based tourism separately, failing to recognize the synergies between them, with the potential to market locations as biocultural destinations. Using Colombia as a case study, we created metrics of taxonomic biological diversity as measured by vertebrate species richness (including birds, mammals, freshwater fishes, reptiles and amphibians) and institutionalized cultural richness (by counting the number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage sites, museums, endemic music festivals, Afro‐Colombian Territories and Indigenous Reserves) and evaluated the spatial correlations between them. To determine biocultural ecotourism potential, we evaluated whether biocultural richness was accessible and mapped potential biocultural ecotourism supply. By mapping areas of sports fisheries, birdwatching destinations, national park annual visitors and airport arrivals we also estimated spatial demand. We also analysed the difference between biocultural ecotourism supply and demand to assess the realized and untapped potential for biocultural destinations. While biocultural richness is high in the Amazon, Pacific and Caribbean regions, we found that there are no win‐win‐win locations where culture, species richness and accessibility are all high. Areas with great potential for biocultural ecotourism development largely coincide with designated Indigenous Reserves and Afro‐Colombian Territories. Our paper suggests that Colombia is currently safeguarding its biocultural capital and that it remains inaccessible to tourists. This study underscores the power of integrating cultural and biological variables to reshape the ecotourism sector. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

  PublisherDOI

• Relationships between Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity are Scale Dependent

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Toward Sustainable Biocultural Tourism: An Integrated Spatial Analysis of Cultural and Biodiversity Richness in Colombia

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-02-06 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract Tourism plays a vital role in both economic development and depending on the scale, it can also aid environmental conservation. Tourism planning often considers culture-based and nature-based tourism separately, failing to recognize the synergies between them, with the potential to market locations as biocultural destinations. Using Colombia as a case study, we created metrics of taxonomic biological diversity as measured by vertebrate species richness (including birds, mammals, freshwater fishes, reptiles, and amphibians) and institutionalized cultural richness (by counting the number of UNESCO world heritage sites, intangible cultural heritage sites, museums, endemic music festivals, Afro-Colombian territories, and Indigenous reserves), and evaluated the spatial correlations between them. To determine biocultural tourism potential, we evaluated whether biocultural richness was accessible, and mapped potential biocultural tourism supply. By mapping areas of sports fisheries, birdwatching destinations, and airport arrivals we also estimated spatial demand. We also analyzed the difference between demand and supply to assess the realized and untapped potential for biocultural destinations. While biocultural richness is high in the Amazon, Pacific, and Caribbean regions, we found that there are no win-win-win locations where culture, species richness, and accessibility are all high. Areas with great potential for biocultural tourism development largely coincide with designated Indigenous reserves and Afro-Colombian territories. This study underscores the power of integrating cultural and biological variables to reshape the tourism sector. Our paper offers practical recommendations for policymakers, conservation organizations, and local communities seeking to create transformative and inclusive tourism experiences.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Modeling the Origin and Evolution of Hawaiian Plants

  NSF · $373k · 2021–2025

• EAGER: DynaMo: A novel computational workflow for dynamic monographs and revisionary systematics

  NSF · $280k · 2019–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Erika J. Edwards

  Yale University

  758 shared

• John E. McCormack

  756 shared

• Sarah Samadi

  Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité

  754 shared

• David Posada

  Galicia Sur Biomedical Foundation

  754 shared

• Tracy A. Heath

  754 shared

• Norman MacLeod

  Johnson Matthey (United Kingdom)

  754 shared

• Thorsten Lumbsch

  Field Museum of Natural History

  754 shared

• Rob Bryson

  754 shared

Labs

• Zapata LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Biology

  University of Missouri-St. Louis

  2010

• B.Sc., Biología

  Universidad de los Andes

  2000