Research Faculty #2
General Information
B.A. (1998) Washington University in St. Louis
Ph.D. (2005) Michigan State University
Postdoctoral researcher (2005-2007) University of Arizona
Contact Information
Research Information
Plant evolutionary ecology; geographic range limits and rarity; population dynamics and community structure.
My lab group works at the interface of ecology and evolutionary biology. Much of our research focuses on the evolutionary ecology of species' geographic distributions, asking what limits adaptation at the edges of species' ranges, why closely related species vary by orders of magnitude in range size, and how ranges are likely to shift in response to climatic changes. Another line of inquiry focuses on population and community dynamics and mechanisms of species coexistence. These different projects are united by a focus on mechanisms of, and constraints on, niche evolution, and the consequences of divergence in niche properties for patterns of distribution and abundance. We combine experimental manipulations in the field and in the lab and observations of natural populations with tools from quantitative genetics and physiological ecology. Much of our research is on species within the genus Mimulus ("monkeyflowers") because of their ecological diversity, history of study, genomic resources, and ease of propagation.
Daniel Anstett - postdoctoral fellow
Haley Branch - graduate student
Katie Goodwin - graduate student
Mackenzie Urquhart-Cronish - graduate student
Takuji Usui - graduate student
Selected Publications
63. Bontrager M, CD Muir, T Usui, JA Lee-Yaw, H Branch, D Anstett, A Hargreaves, and AL Angert. 2021. Expansion dynamics and marginal climates drive adaptation across geographic ranges. Evolution, in press. Posted on bioRxiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.22.262915.
62. Srivastava DS, L Coristine, AL Angert, M Bontrager, SL Amundrud, J Williams, ACY Yeung, DR de Zwaan, PL Thompson, SN Aitken, JM Sunday, MI O’Connor, J Whitton, NEM Brown, CD MacLeod, LW Parfrey, JR Bernhardt, J Carillo, CDG Harley, PT Martone, BG Freeman, M Tseng, and SD Donner. Wildcards in climate change biology. Ecological Monographs, in press.
60. Germain R, SP Hart, MM Turcotte, SP Otto, J Sakarchi, J Rolland, T Usui, AL Angert, D Schluter, R Bassar, M Waters, F Henao- Diaz, and AM Siepielski. 2021. On the origin of coexisting species. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 36: 284-293.
59. Anstett D, H Branch, and AL Angert. 2021. Regional differences in rapid evolution during severe drought. Evolution Letters 5:130-142.
57. Miller TEX, AL Angert, CD Brown, JA Lee-Yaw, M Lewis, F Lutscher, N Marculis, BA Melbourne, AK Shaw, M Szűucs, O Tabares, T Usui, C Weiss-Lehman, and JL Williams. 2020. The eco-evolutionary dynamics of range expansion. Ecology 101: e03139.
56. Urban M, SY Strauss, F Pelletier, EP Palkovacs, MA Leibold, AP Hendry, L De Meester, SM Carlson, AL Angert, and ST Giery. 2020. Evolutionary origins for ecological patterns in space. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117: 17482-17490.