Chris Eckert - Professor

Research: The research in my lab investigates two major evolutionary trends in flowering plants: the evolution of self-fertilization and the evolution of asexuality. We also have a strong interest in the genetic & ecological consequences of colonization as well as the evolution of geographical range limits. These interests dovetail with conservation research on invasive and endangered species.  We use a combination of large-scale geographical populations surveys, manipulative experiments in natural populations, DNA and protein marker-gene analysis of reproductive patterns & genetic structure, plus a variety of lab-based tools, including quantitative genetics, developmental analyses, image analysis, and computer modeling.  Our field work takes place in a variety of locations across North America and Europe. Currently, we have projects on the coevolution of geographic range limits and the mating system based on the pacific coast of North America, a large-scale analysis of adaptive evolution during biological invasion based in Europe and eastern North America, and a phylogeographic study of plants that occur as disjunct populations on critically-imperiled alvar habitat in the Great Lakes region.

• Yakimowski, S.B. and C.G. Eckert. 2008. Populations do not become less genetically diverse or more differentiated towards the northern limit of the geographical range in clonal Vaccinium stamineum (Ericaceae). New Phytologist 180: 534-544.
• Montague, J. L., S.C.H. Barrett, and C.G. Eckert. 2008. Re-establishment of clinal variation in flowering time among introduced populations of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria, Lythraceae). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21: 234-245.
  Kliber, A. & C.G. Eckert. 2006. Interaction between founder effect and selection during biological invasion in a clonal aquatic plant. Evolution 59: 1900-1913.
• Goodwillie, C., S Kalisz & C.G. Eckert. 2005. The evolutionary enigma of mixed mating systems in plants: Occurrence, theoretical explanations and empirical evidence. Annual Review of Ecology Evolution & Systematics 36:47-79.
  
• Brown, J.S. & C.G. Eckert. 2005. Evolutionary increase in sexual and clonal reproductive capacity during biological invasion in an aquatic plant, Butomus umbellatus (Butomaceae). American Journal of Botany 92:495-502.
  
• Herlihy, C.R. & C.G. Eckert. 2004. Experimental dissection of inbreeding and its adaptive significance in a flowering plant, Aquilegia canadensis (Ranunculaceae). Evolution 58:2693-2703.
• Dorken, M.E., Neville, K.J. & C.G. Eckert. 2004. Evolutionary vestigialization of sex in a clonal plant: selection versus neutral mutation in geographically peripheral populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 271: 2375 - 2380.