Snake populations in the northeast are often dependent on rocky outcrops that provide natural basking and denning habitat.
My current research focuses on identifying key factors that can affect variation in the overall genetic structure of recently diverged populations, and the relative roles organismal attributes and microevolution play in shaping that structure. Traditional biogeography focuses mainly on species diversity patterns at broad temporal and spatial scales. For many species, distribution and habitat data are available at much finer scales than those typical of phylogenetics. By integrating fine-scale molecular analyses with information on ecological attributes of species, we can gain a much deeper understanding of relative roles of behavior and microevolution in the divergence of populations. This work is being carried out in collaboration with Harry Greene, Kelly Zamudio, Steve DeGloria, and Bill Brown.
