I am a PhD Candidate working at the intersection of tropical botany and evolutionary genomics, with a focus on the Indo-Malayan, Australasian, Oceanian, and Neotropical biogeographic regions.
My current research integrates wood anatomy, dendrochronology, plant population genomics, and phylogeography, within the PacificPeopleForest Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network, an interdisciplinary research programme investigating the history, archaeology, and botany of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific.
Keywords
Tropical Botany • Evolutionary Genomics • Wood Anatomy • Dendrochronology • Population Genomics • Phylogeography • Interdisciplinary Research • Mariana Islands • Pacific Islands • Oceania
Research interests
I am fascinated by how genomic data can uncover the hidden evolutionary and biogeographical histories of plant species written across centuries, millennia and millions of years.
As genomic variation accumulates across generations and through shallow and deep evolutionary time, DNA preserves traces of diversification, migration, adaptation, and demographic changes. My current research explores how genomic data can help reconstruct past human-mediated plant dispersal and landscape transformation in the Mariana Islands, investigating how successive waves of prehistoric human migration and early modern colonial exchange reshaped Pacific Island ecosystems. In parallel, this research aims to investigate the dendrochronological potential of tropical tree species to evaluate their suitability for dating archaeological remains.
Current topicsPhD Project Framework
An overview of the topics I am currently working on.
Botany and Ethnobotany of the Mariana Islands
PhD Supervisors
Publications
Žerdoner, A., Susca, F., Krak, K., Mandák, B., Kadereit, G. Tracing Sticky Trails: The Historical Biogeography of Australia’s Glandular Goose-foots (Dysphania, Chenopodioideae, Amaranthaceae). bioRxiv preprint (2026) doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.06.01.728730. Journal of Biogeography (In press).