Thomas A. Ranker

Professor & Chair of the Department of Botany, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Graduate Faculty in EBIO

ranker@hawaii.edu
808-956-3930
Ranker Lab

Ph.D., University of Kansas, Lawrence, 1987

Research Interests

Plant evolution, systematics, and phylogenetics; ecological and conservation genetics; special group of interest: pteridophytes. A variety of techniques are used for research including qualitative and quantitative studies of morphology and analyses of isozymic and molecular variation. Present studies include the evolution, systematics, and population biology of native Hawaiian ferns and the tropical fern family Grammitidaceae. I suggest a visit to the herbarium .

Recent Publications

Arcand, N. N. and T. A. Ranker. 2008. Conservation biology. Pp. 257–283 in T. A. Ranker and C. H. Haufler (eds), Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Ramp Neale, J. M., T. A. Ranker, and S. K. Collinge. 2008. Conservation of rare species with island-like distributions: A case study of Lasthenia conjugens (Asteraceae) using population genetic structure and the distribution of rare markers. Plant Species Biology 23: 97–110. “Plant Species Biology Best Paper Award 2008”

Ranker, T. A. 2008. A new combination in Adenophorus (Polypodiaceae). 2008. American Fern Journal 98: 170–171.

Ranker, T. A. and J. M. O. Geiger. 2008. Population genetics. Pp. 107–133 in T. A. Ranker and C. H. Haufler (eds), Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Ranker, T. A, C. E. C. Gemmill, P. G. Trapp, and E. Sheffield. 2008. Island ferns, inbreeding depression and genetic risks of extinction. Pp. 427–431 in S. C. Verma, S. P. Khullar, and H. K. Cheema (eds), Perspectives in Pteridophytes. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehradun, India.

Fehlberg, S. D. and T. A. Ranker. 2009. Evolutionary History and Phylogeography of Encelia farinosa (Asteraceae) from the Sonoran, Mojave, and Peninsular Deserts. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 50: 326–335.

Goebel, A. M., T. A. Ranker, P. S. Corn, and R. G. Olmstead. 2008. Mitochondrial DNA Evolution in the Anaxyrus boreas species group. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 50: 209–225.

Lehnert, M., M. Kessler, A. N. Schmidt-Lebuhn, S. A. Klimas, S. Fehlberg, and T. A. Ranker. 2009. Phylogeny of the fern genus Melpomene (Polypodiaceae) inferred from morphology and chloroplast DNA analysis. Systematic Botany 34: 17–27.

Ranker, T. A. and C. H. Haufler (eds). 2008. Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 480 pp.