Paul Sunnucks
| vCard Paul Sunnucks | |
|---|---|
| Homepage: | www.biolsci.monash.edu.au/staff/sunnucks/index.html |
| WorkingGroup: | EcoGen-PopGen |
| Species: | |
| Nominations: | |
One of my research interests is how animals inhabit and move through natural habitats and those altered by human actions. I work on a great range of vertebrate and invertebrate animals in the contexts of population biology, evolution and biodiversity. One of my favourite model systems is the wonderful fauna that inhabits decaying wood. The 'saproxylic' community contains very many fabulous organisms that have a number of very alluring characteristics as models in landscape ecology, evolution and biodiversity. The most important of these include their generally low mobility and high habitat specificity. This means that their genetics captures landscape history well, and reveals some fascinating insights about speciation and diversity. Among these, velvet worms (peripatus, or Phylum Onychophora) have proven exciting model organisms in a great range of subject areas of ecology and evolution.
My research group combines spatial genetics with landscape ecology, and increasingly seeks to connect natural history, advanced landscape modelling, molecular population biology and functional genetics/genomics.
