The California Channel Islands are an archipelago of eight islands off the coast of southern California. Since 2010, I have been working on the Bryophyte flora of the islands. The ongoing project has more than doubled the number of known species across the islands.
More recently, I have been working with Matt Guilliams of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to develop the Channel Islands as a model system for understanding how island size, distance to mainland and other factors dictate richness and endemism among the the three major land plant groups on the islands (seed plants, vascular seedless plants, and bryophytes). |
Soil Crusts
An important conservation concern on the islands is the biotic soil crusts, which are composed of lichens, bryophytes and cyanobacteria. Some investigators believe that the abundant and species-rich crusts on the island are the last remnants of a once important community that flourished throughout coastal southern California prior to urbanization of Los Angeles and San Diego
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Specimens
Collection of voucher specimens is a critical part of biodiversity inventories for many of the less well-known organisms, like bryophytes. Currently there are two putative undescribed mosses known only from collections on the Channel Islands
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Spores and Seeds
With Matt Guilliams, an expert on the vascular flora of the Channel Islands, I'm exploring how dispersal by seeds and spores affects diversification, endemism and species turnover across the Channel Islands
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