Lecture series in Ecology and Environmental Research WS 2017/18

Diversification dynamics – 501 Hypericum species and the phylogenetic approach

Diversity is unevenly distributed through space, time, and phylogeny. Alpha diversity, or species richness, is ultimately the product of historic processes intrinsic to biological organisms. Diversification generates and dispersal inter alia clusters diversity. Studying the evolutionary relationships among organisms provides access to these historic processes.

Using the genus Hypericum (St. John’s worth, Hypericaceae) as a model, I will talk about some historic aspects of diversity evolution, its dynamics, and the extent to which diversity varies between biomes, and why. By focusing on three different scales of evolutionary depth , I aim at deducing the impact of history, conservatism, and adaptive capacity on diversification dynamics in general.

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