Dr. Silke Werth - Persönliche Homepage

Organisationseinheit: Biodiversität u Naturschutzbiologie Biodiversität Tel: +41 44 7392 328 Fax: +41 44 7392 215 Raum: Bi MG C 47 E-Mail: Adresse: Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL Zürcherstrasse 111 8903 Birmensdorf

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Research Interests

In the broadest sense, my research seeks to understand the evolution and ecology of natural plant and lichen populations. Bearing this goal in mind, I explore three general issues:

(1) the ecology and population genetics of threatened species;

(2) landscape genetics: contemporary gene flow and spatial patterns of genetic diversity across landscapes;

(3) comparative phylogeography.

I use a variety of empirical techniques including traditional field observational methods in ecology, geostatistical tools to quantify spatial genetic structure, statistical and simulation modeling, and molecular analyses. Critical to all my work is the usage of molecular markers targeted to a particular spatio-temporal scale of interest, which reveal important aspects of the life history and ecology of taxa that could not be explored using traditional observational methods. In addition to plants, I use a second very exciting and largely unexplored model system, lichen-forming fungi, to answer general questions in evolutionary ecology.

Education

Postdoctoral research. Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Switzerland, February 2008–present.

Postdoctoral research. Dept. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Los Angeles, United States, October 2005–January 2008.

Ph.D. University of Berne, Switzerland, 2005. Advisor: Christoph Scheidegger.

Cand. Scient. Ecological Botany, University of Tromsø, Norway, 2001.

Vordiplom in Biology, University of Ulm, Germany 1997.

Current projects

Conservation genetics and ecology of the endangered riparian shrub Myricaria germanica (Tamaricaceae)

Genetic structure and phylogeography of three closely related lichen-forming fungi, Lobaria pulmonaria, L. immixta and L. macaronesica in Macaronesia 

Phylogeography and genetic structure of Ramalina menziesii in western North America (collaboration with Dr. Victoria Sork, University of California at Los Angeles)

Publications

Publications in the WSL database