Published: April 25, 2016

Khoa Nguyen, who was mentored by Rob, presented his phylogenetic work on the North American Larrea tridentata (creosote) and its sister species, the South American L. divaricata. Despite their broad geographic separation, these two share plastid haplotypes for at least some regions.  Jessica and Will, who were mentored by Rob and Julienne, shared their work on the phylogenetic community structure at NEON sites.  Their work shows that invasive species tend to show phylogenetic clustering, suggesting that some inherited traits may account for the ability to invade.  It was great to see the hard work of these students come to fruition!

Khoa  JessWill