Research Program

The Austin laboratory uses molecular genetic techniques to examine questions concerning population genetics, systematics, biogeography, phylogeography and physiological and functional ecology of reptiles and amphibians. Presently, there are multiple research projects underway around the world. Research in my lab primarily uses independent molecular genetic data sets (mtDNA and nuclear DNA sequences) and morphology to answer evolutionary questions, aid in conservation efforts, and describe species new to science.

A particular geographic focus of research effort is the island of New Guinea, the world’s largest and highest tropical island. Research is directed at understanding the patterns and processes that generated the megadiversity of life in New Guinea. Our lab is funded by the National Science Foundation to collect large multi locus data sets from amphibians and reptiles to better understand the how production and maintenance of high biodiversity ecosystems are generated and sustained. This knowledge will be critical for the continuance of life on earth during the current age of increased global extinction. Our NSF grant is an international and highly collaborative project with co principal investigators Steve Donnellan from the South Australian Museum and Allen Allison from the Bishop Museum. In addition, we are working with the faculty and students at the University of Papua New Guinea as well as working closely with the PNG Department of Environment and Conservation, PNG Department of Education, and colleagues at the PNG National Museum and Art Gallery.

New Guinea began forming more than 25 million years ago at the junction of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. Its complex geological history, involving volcanism, uplift and the accretion of island arcs and other landmasses, together with enormous topographic and climatic diversity, has promoted the development of an elaborate assemblage of ecosystems ranging from lowland rainforests to alpine glaciers. Most of the biota is endemic and includes an estimated 5-7% of global biodiversity and more than 70% of the biodiversity in the Pacific region. The rugged topography of the island, however, is the result of geologically recent uplift of the central mountain range beginning around 5 million years ago. Much of the biodiversity of the island, therefore, is though to be relatively recent in origin. Climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene are thought to have caused shrinkage of lowland rainforests potentially generating genetic diversity via allopatric division of the lowland adapted biota. Our preliminary molecular data from mitochondrial and nuclear markers for reptiles suggests that these paleoclimatological events, together with the uplift of the New Guinea cordillera and lowland basin formation, were critical processes that generated, and currently sustain, considerably more lowland diversity than currently recognized. Indeed, if this is correct, and if this pattern is reflected in other groups, such as invertebrates and plants, New Guinea may be one of the most megadiverse hotspots on this planet. Our goal is to use modern molecular methods to infer the historical population-level processes that have been responsible for generating and sustaining New Guinean megadiversity and to link process and pattern in order to understand the evolution of tropical hotspot diversity.