Research Expertise and Interest

environmental policy, environmental science, policy & management, forestry, wildlife, plant biology

Research Description

Richard Dodd is a professor in the division of Ecosystem Sciences in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management.  Climate change and habitat fragmentation are two major concerns for the future health of forests and woodlands and the diversity of organisms that depend on these ecosystems. Research in the Dodd lab uses molecular methods to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of populations of species and species complexes in response to past and future environmental change. Areas of research currently under investigation include: 1) Demographic fluctuations that may have resulted in divergent lineages within species as a result of past climatic and geomorphologic disturbances. 2) The role of hybrid events in colonization particularly under past and future climate change and the response of hybrids to pests and diseases. 3) The dynamics of clonal and sexual reproduction Currently our research focuses on species of Mediterranean ecosystems and of tropical coastal marsh.