Lizzie Roeble

Lizzie Roeble

I am a PhD student interested in the evolution and biodiversity of plants. I study the evolutionary patterns and processes that shape plant diversity across islands. My research focus is on the incredibly diverse daisy family (Asteraceae) and its evolution and diversification in the context of island biogeography.

Keywords

Evolution, Island biogeography, Plant diversity, Angiosperms, Asteraceae

Lizzie Roeble

PhD Candidate
Understanding Evolution

lizzie.roeble@naturalis.nl

Twitter

Research
interest

Islands harbour a great amount of biodiversity found nowhere else on Earth. They are sites of spectacular species radiations and key natural laboratories for testing and understanding evolutionary processes.

Asteraceae is a mega-diverse (and the largest!) plant family, with an estimated 25,000–35,000 species. This is a remarkable family for studying the dynamics of island diversification, as it has many independent island radiations and over a thousand island endemic species. In my PhD research, I combine natural history collections, fieldwork, and phylogenomics to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of insular Asteraceae. Through this, I hope to understand how ecological interactions and island features shape the macroevolution of Asteraceae on islands at a global scale.

Madeira
Madeira calendula

Current
topics

A selection of the topics I am working on currently.

Asteraceae

Island biogeography of Asteraceae

While birds and mammals have received most attention from island biologists, they actually pale in comparison with plants when it comes to insular diversification. Among plants, the most remarkable group from an island perspective are the daisies…
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Publications

  • R. Cámara-Leret, N. Raes, P. Roehrdanz, Y. De Fretes, C. D. Heatubun, L. Roeble, A. Schuiteman, P. van Welzen, L. Hannah, Climate change threatens New Guinea’s biocultural heritage. Science Advances. 5, eaaz1455 (2019). pdf