Research in our lab focuses on the study of speciation, from the earliest stages where populations start to diverge to the final stages where reproductive isolation evolves.

To investigate this complex process, we take an integrative approach that incorporates data from diverse fields, including behavioral ecology, phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, genomics, ecology, and geology.

Synthesizing across these various disciplines offers unique and exciting insights into the geographic and ecological factors that promote population differentiation, the genes involved in population divergence, and the behavioral traits that lead to reproductive isolation, and ultimately, to formation of new species.

Our current research centers on studying speciation-in-action within contact zones of amphibians, where variation in 1) timing of geographic contact, 2) level of initial behavioral differentiation, and 3) degree of ecological specificity of diverging lineages has led to disparate patterns of reproductive isolation, and consequently, outcomes of the speciation process.

Interested prospective students should contact Emily directly for more information (chorusfrog "at" bio.fsu.edu) and look at the Prospective Students page.