Kelly Zamudio

My research focuses on the causes and consequences of genetic differentiation among individuals, populations, and species. Specifically, I am interested in the links between traits or attributes of organisms (such as philopatry, sexual selection, unequal migration between the sexes, and reproductive skew) and the origin and maintenance of genetic diversity among populations or species. The mechanisms underlying population, lineage or species differentiation are central to the origin of biological diversityÑ these are, in essence, what evolution is all about. Nonetheless, most studies of differentiation are either genetic studies of population structure or single-population studies of species-specific attributes (such as mating behavior, reproductive skew, or migration). There are compelling reasons we should combine these approaches; if we examine population differentiation in an integrated fashion we can disentangle the role and relative magnitude of various microevolutionary forces underlying differentiation, the extent to which species-specific characteristics mediate this process, and the degree to which population-level processes or mechanisms translate to patterns of differentiation at larger scales. The main goal of my research program is to integrate these analytical approaches and test hypotheses about the patterns and processes of differentiation at various geographical and evolutionary scales.