Researchers

Dr. Wendy Moore and her lab members investigate the evolution and ecology of terrestrial arthropods. We use molecular genetic techniques and morphological methods to infer robust phylogenetic frameworks to identify and describe natural groups of terrestrial arthropods, to study their diversification and patterns of distribution, and to elucidate their ecological roles and to assess the impact of key innovations on their evolutionary histories. Much of our research pertains to investigations of arthropod biodiversity in the Sky Islands Region in the desert Southwest.The Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP) is a collaborative multi-disciplinary research program at the University of Arizona that combines systematics, biogeography, ecology, and population genetics to study origins and patterns of arthropod diversity among mountain ranges and along elevation gradients in the Madrean Sky Island Region. Arthropods represent taxonomically and ecologically diverse organisms that drive key ecosystem processes in this mountain archipelago. Using data from museum specimens and specimens we obtain during long-term collecting and monitoring programs, ASAP will document arthropod species across Arizona’s Sky Islands to address a number of fundamental questions about arthropods of this region. Baseline data will be used to determine climatic boundaries for target species, which will then be integrated with climatological models to predict future changes in arthropod communities and distributions in the wake of rapid climate change. ASAP also makes use of the natural laboratory provided by the Sky Islands to investigate ecological and genetic factors that influence diversification and patterns of community assembly.