cschneid@bu.edu

Moleculuar Ecology and Evolution Ecology and Conservation Biology Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Genetics Tropical Ecology Animal Behavior

Associate Professor of Biology
Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1993

Ecology and evolution of reptiles and amphibians, molecular systematics and population genetics, tropical biology and conservation

Research in my laboratory combines field studies with a variety of molecular genetic analyses to study terrestrial vertebrate population biology, systematics, biogeography, and speciation. My current research is primarily aimed at understanding the evolutionary processes that generate and shape patterns of species diversity in tropical regions. While my research focuses on vertebrates, I welcome students with interests in any organism and/or region who wish to pursue conceptually similar studies in ecology, evolution, or conservation biology. Current topics of study in my lab include:

  (i) Evolutionary processes that shape patterns of species diversity in tropical rainforests. This large, collaborative study is designed to identify evolutionary processes and associated landforms and habitat structures that are responsible for generating vertebrate species diversity in tropical rainforests. The approach is broad, integrative and comparative; involving comparison among three continents, South America, Africa, and Australia; and includes analyses of population divergence and systematics of birds, bats, small mammals, and herps. The goal is to provide information necessary for preserving the long-term evolutionary processes that sustain high diversity in tropical rainforests. The work involves extensive field work and collecting, molecular systematic analyses using DNA sequence and other data, analyses of population divergence using mtDNA and nuclear genetic markers, and analyses of morphological and life history diversification. In addition, we are developing remote sensing and GIS approaches to identify geographic features important to maintaining evolutionary processes and also to analyze ecological patterns and processes at landscape and regional scales.

  (ii) Population divergence and speciation in the Anolis marmoratus species complex from the island of Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles. This research is designed to assess the relative importance of geographic isolation, sexual selection, and natural selection across ecological gradients in driving diversification.   Analyses are focusing on genetic differentiation at diverse loci to infer population history, gene flow and timing and pattern of divergence.  

  (iii) Molecular systematics and evolutionary analysis of a recently discovered, endemic radiation of rhacophorid frogs from Sri Lanka. Mr. Madhava Meegaskumbura, a PhD student from Sri Lanka, with support from the Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka, is analyzing the ca. 100 species of endemic rhacophorid tree frogs from Sri Lanka. He is constructing a molecular phylogeny of the Sri Lankan endemic taxa, and including rhacophorids worldwide. He is using this phylogenetic framework to analyze the patterns and processes of diversification in the Sri Lankan endemics and the family Rhacophoridae.   Finally, he is conducting field studies of breeding ecology, behavior, and population dynamics with the goal of developing conservation measures for the remarkable endemic amphibian fauna of Sri Lanka.

  (iv) Molecular systematics and evolution of Sri Lankan mammals.   Ms. Suyama Meegaskumbura is a Ph.D. student studying the endemic small mammal fauna of Sri Lanka, its relationship to taxa from other parts of the world, and its biogeography.   Suyama is also interested in mammalian parasites and cospeciation in the Sri Lankan fauna.

For a complete list of publications see http://people.bu.edu/cschneid

Schneider CJ and SE Williams 2005. Effects of Quaternary Climate Change on Rainforest Diversity: Insights from Spatial Analyses of Species and Genes in Australia's Wet Tropics. In E. Bermingham, C. Dick, and C. Moritz, editors, Tropical Rainforests: Past, Present, and Future. University of Chicago Press.

M. Meegaskumbura, K. Manamendra-Arachchi 2005. Description of eight new species of shrub-frogs (Ranidae: Rhacophorinae: Philautus) from Sri Lanka. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement 13:305-338.

Bossuyt F, Meegaskumbura M, Beenaerts N, Gower DJ, Pethiyagoda R, Roelants K, Mannaert A, Wilkinson M, Bahir MM, Manamendra-Arachchi K, Ng PKL, Schneider CJ, Oomen OV, Milinkovitch MC 2004. Local endemism within the Western Ghats – Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. Science 306:479-481.

Graham CJ, Ron SR, Santos JC, Schneider CJ, Moritz C. 2004. Integrating phylogenetics and environmental niche models to explore speciation mechanisms in dendrobatid frogs. Evolution 58: 1781-1793.

M Meegaskumbura, F Bossuyt, R Pethiyagoda, K Manamendra-Arachchi, M. Bahir, MC Milinkovitch, CJ Schneider 2002. Sri Lanka: An amphibian hotspot. Science 298:379.

Knox AK, JB Losos, CJ Schneider 2001. Adaptive radiation versus intraspecific differentiation: Morphological variation in Caribbean Anolis lizards. J. Evol. Biol. 14:904-909.

Moritz C, JL Patton, CJ Schneider, TB Smith 2000. Diversification of rainforest faunas: An integrated molecular approach. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 31: 533-563.

Schneider CJ, TB Smith, B Larison, C Moritz 1999. A test of alternative models of diversification in tropical rainforests: Ecological gradients versus rainforest refugia. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA. 96:13869-13873.

Questions and comments are always welcome.
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This document was last modified on November 9, 2006.