Research group Group Hackel

We study the distribution of plants. We focus on the evolutionary processes that generated these distribution patterns, and how they relate to changing ecosystems. Our methods are based on phylogenomics, which means we use DNA to understand how species diverged from each other over time. Based on this, we model the emergence and disappearance of species, how species moved between places and ecosystems, and how particular traits relevant to ecosystem processes, such as fire tolerance, evolved. For this, we collect plants in the field and work with museum collections, but also use available datasets of plant distribution, traits, and relatedness. Currently, one focus of our work is the evolution of ecosystems and plants (Erica, Peponidium, Poaceae, Uapaca) in Madagascar.