Cristian Román-Palacios Research Group

University of Arizona

How do lineage relationships explain patterns of species richness across regions and time? The group constructs and analyzes large phylogenetic trees to test drivers of biodiversity using species-level datasets and comparative methods. Researchers develop statistical and machine-learning workflows to infer paleoclimatic variables from proxy datasets and to reconstruct past climates for testing species’ responses. The lab applies data mining and biostatistical pipelines to quantify how historical and recent climate change affect species survival probabilities across taxa. The team implements open-source computational tools and reproducible workflows to run large-scale biodiversity and paleoclimate analyses efficiently.