Dr Marcel Cardillo 'Australian Plant Biodiversity: Past, Present and Future’

Marcel, from the ANU, will discuss how extracting DNA from plant tissues helps us reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Australian biota over tens of millions of years. He will explain why south- west Australia is a 'biodiversity hotspot’ and the increasingly important role that molecular phylogenetics plays with examples from research on Australian Proteaceae.

Abstract

How can extracting DNA from plant tissue help us to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Australian biota over tens of millions of years, explain why south-west Australia is a ‘biodiversity hotspot’, or to anticipate and plan for future loss of biodiversity? I will discuss the increasingly important role that molecular phylogenetics plays in biogeography, ecology, and conservation, illustrated with examples from our research on Australian Proteaceae.

Biography

Marcel Cardillo is an Associate Professor in the Research School of Biology, ANU.  He teaches evolution and ecology, and leads a research group that reconstructs molecular phylogenies and uses these, together with spatial biodiversity and environmental data, to infer evolutionary and biogeographic history, processes of diversification and vulnerability to extinction.