The team is involved in a variety of projects at the interface between ecology, evolution and conservation. We work on both plants and animals, using a combination of genetics and genomics technologies together with demanding data collection in the field, often in remote (sub)tropical areas.

We are investigating the origin of species, and several of us are looking at the ecological conditions and genomic architectures that allow new species to evolve in sympatry. A lot of this research focuses on the Howea palms of Lord Howe Island near Australia, but also extends to other taxonomic and geographic systems.

We are working on large-scale patterns of biodiversity, combining phylogenetic and community-ecological approaches to understand the uneven distribution of species diversity across the globe. For example, we conduct intensive work in the southern African 'biodiversity hotspots' and look at global patterns of dispersal and diversification in monocot plants.

Integrating the human dimension in biodiversity studies, we look at the factors that promote invasiveness in plants on archipelagos and in Asian deer in the UK. We are also interested in domestication, for example applying genomics approaches to disentangle the history of the olive tree, the oldest crop. Finally, we run several conservation and capacity building projects in Africa.

Further details can be found on individual pages of our group members.

Current projects are funded in majority by the European Commission, the Royal Society, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and the European Research Council. We are very grateful to these organisations for their support.