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Dr. Eva Gonzales
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. University of Georgia; Athens, GA, USA
Rankin West 263
Telephone (828) 262-2675
Fax (828) 262-2127
gonzaleseb@appstate.edu
Website: http://www.appstate.edu/~gonzaleseb
Areas of Key Interest:
Phylogeography, population genetics, conservation biology and restoration, molecular ecology, landscape genetics, plant dispersal processes.
Research:
I have a wide range of interests in plant evolutionary genetics and ecology. My work is mostly empirical; it integrates ecological and molecular tools to address questions in pure and applied research. A major unifying theme of my research is to understand cryptic, intra-specific distribution of genetic diversity across species geographic ranges, and its importance to natural selection and local adaptation to heterogeneous environmental conditions.
The current projects in my lab examine hypotheses regarding past plant species migration in response to major climate changes, and investigate genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation on both landscape and local, population levels. More recently, we have begun to ask questions about how adaptive traits are affected by species evolutionary history, and consequent sub-structuring of their genetic diversity. We are interested in understanding genetic versus environmental bases of population divergences. Our lab group is primarily focused on North American native plant species with conservation implications.
Selected Publications
Gonzales E, JL Hamrick & PE Smouse. 2008. Comparison of clonal diversity in mountain and Piedmont populations of Trillium cuneatum (Melanthiaceae-Trilliaceae), a forest understory species. American Journal of Botany 95: 1254-1261.
PE Smouse, R Peakall R & E Gonzales. 2008. A heterogeneity test for fine-scale genetic structure. Molecular Ecology 17: 3389-3400.
Gonzales E, JL Hamrick & SM Chang. 2008. Identification of glacial refugia in south-eastern North America by phylogeographic analyses of a forest understorey plant, Trillium cuneatum. Journal of Biogeography 35: 844-852.
Gonzales E, JL Hamrick, PE Smouse & RJ Dyer. 2006. Pollen mediated gene dispersal within continuous and fragmented populations of a forest understory species, Trillium cuneatum. Molecular Ecology 8: 2047-2058.
Hamrick, JL, MJW Godt & E Gonzales. 2006. Conservation of genetic diversity in old-growth forest communities. Applied Vegetation Science 9: 51-57.
Gonzales E & JL Hamrick. 2005. Distribution of genetic diversity among disjunct populations of the rare forest herb, Trillium reliquum. Heredity 95:306-314.
Franks, SJ, CL Richards, E Gonzales, JE Cousins & JL Hamrick. 2004. Multi-scale genetic analysis of Uniola paniculata (Poaceae): a coastal species with a linear, fragmented distribution. American Journal of Botany 91:1345-1351.
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