Quote of the Month

"...you can catch phenomena in a logical box or in a mathematical box. The logical box is coarse but strong. The mathematical box is fine-grained but flimsy. The mathematical box is a beautiful way of wrapping up a problem, but it will not hold the phenomena unless they have been caught in a logical box to begin with." - John R. Platt (1964) "Strong inference - certain systematic methods of scientific thinking may produce much more rapid progress than others" Science 146: 347-353.

Academic Pedigree

I grew up in Napa, California and attended Humboldt State University where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and minors in Biometry, Botany and Geography. In 2001, I joined the laboratory of Benjamin Hall in the Department of Biology located at the University of Washington. I completed my Ph.D. in 2006 and moved to a Postdoctoral Fellow position in the laboratories of David Neale and Charles Langley in the Section of Evolution and Ecology located at the University of California - Davis.

Research Interests

Biological systems are complex and continuous hierarchies ranging from molecules to collections of species. This statement is found in almost every biological textbook published during the last half century. Only recently, however, have biologists been able to form testable hypotheses that span the link between genotypes, phenotypes and the ecological and evolutionary contexts in which those links occur. Such multilevel analyses are based upon the integration of several traditional fields of biological inquiry – genetics, molecular biology, population genetics, population biology, ecology and phylogenetics. I believe that this integration can also be further utilized to help develop methodologies and philosophical frameworks in applied fields such as conservation genetics. My research addresses several fundamental and applied questions in forest tree population genetics, ecology, and phylogenetics: (1) What are the genes that underlie adaptive phenotypic traits in forest trees? (2) What are the determinants of genetic diversity within natural populations and how do these determinants vary in time and space? (3) How do species interactions shape the organization of ecological communities and do these interactions cascade down to produce effects on levels of genetic diversity within populations? (4) How can single and multi-species phylogeographic inferences aid in understanding the floristic development of unique plant assemblages? (5) What are the phylogenies of major forest tree lineages and how can these inferences best be used to understand the biogeographic and evolutionary history of these taxa?

For more information about any of these interests please click on one numbers in the list above.



Publications


Eckert, A. J., J. D. Liechty, B. R. Tearse, B. Pande and D. B. Neale. DnaSAM: Software to perform neutrality testing for large datasets with complex null models. Molecular Ecology Resources. In press.

Eckert, A. J., J. L. Wegrzyn, B. Pande, K. D. Jermstad, J. M. Lee, J. D. Liechty, B. R. Tearse, K. V. Krutovsky and D. B. Neale. 2009. Multilocus patterns of nucleotide diversity and divergence reveal positive selection at candidate genes related to cold-hardiness in coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii). Genetics 183: 289-298.

Olmstead, R. G., M. L. Zjhra, L. G. Lohmann, S. O. Grose and A. J. Eckert. 2009. A molecular phylogeny of Bignoniaceae. American Journal of Botany 96: 1731-1743.

Eckert, A. J., A. D. Bower, B. Pande, K. D. Jermstad, K. V. Krutovsky, J. B. St. Clair and D. B. Neale. 2009. Association genetics of coastal Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii, Pinaceae). I. Cold-hardiness related traits. Genetics 182: 1289-1302.

Eckert, A. J., B. Pande, E. S. Ersoz, M. H. Wright, V. K. Rashbrook, C. M. Nicolet and D. B. Neale. 2009. High-throughput genotyping and mapping of single nucleotide polymorphisms in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.). Tree Genetics and Genomes 5: 225-234.

Eckert, A. J. and B. C. Carstens. 2008. Does gene flow destroy phylogenetic signal? The performance of three methods for estimating a species phylogeny in the presence of gene flow. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 49: 832-842.

Eckert, A. J., B. R. Tearse, and B. D. Hall. 2008. A phylogeographical analysis of the range disjunction for foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana, Pinaceae): the role of Pleistocene glaciation. Molecular Ecology 17: 1983-1997.

Eckert, A. J. and M. L. Eckert. 2007. Effects of aspect, elevation, and substrate type on size class distributions of foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana, Pinaceae) in the Klamath Mountains, California. Madroño 54: 117-125.

Eckert, A. J. 2006. Influence of substrate type and microsite availability on the persistence of foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana, Pinaceae) in the Klamath Mountains, California. American Journal of Botany 93: 1615-1624.

Eckert, A. J. and B. D. Hall. 2006. Phylogeny, historical biogeography, and patterns of diversification for Pinus (Pinaceae) – Phylogenetic tests of fossil-based hypotheses. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40: 166-182.

del Moral, R. and A. J. Eckert. 2005. Colonization of volcanic deserts from productive patches. American Journal of Botany 92: 27-36.

Goetsch, L., A. J. Eckert, and B. D. Hall. 2005. The molecular systematics of Rhododendron (Ericaceae): A phylogeny based upon RPB2 gene sequences. Systematic Botany 30: 616-626.

Eckert, A. J. and J. O. Sawyer. 2002. Foxtail pine importance and conifer diversity in the Klamath Mountains and southern Sierra Nevada, California. Madroño 49: 33-45.
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