Michael Hickerson

Assistant Professor Department of Biology Queens College and The Graduate Center City University of New York

Education

Ph.D., 2003, Duke University

Contact

Email:

Website: qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/Biology/Hickerlab/index.html

Overview of Research

 

My research involves developing computational tools that use powerful statistical modeling to analyze genetic sequence data from many (i.e., 5 - 500) individuals of many (i.e., 50 - 500) species simultaneously, with the goal of estimating rates of range expansion, colonization, and divergence that will be used to test models of community assembly and evolution. These tools must be computationally efficient so that analyses of large data sets are possible using widely available computer hardware, and they must incorporate uncertainty and variability in estimates of dispersal, mutation, and evolutionary divergence. Continued development of our modeling framework is helping stimulate research at the interface of ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation biology.

The field of phylogeography draws on population genetics, community ecology, and systematics to understand the evolutionary history of species and communities. Analysis of genetic variability within species and communities can provide insights into how communities established and how species within those communities evolved. It can also suggest how species and communities may respond to changes in climate, invasions, and possible outcomes of combining species into communities that have no current or historic analogs. Our lab now includes two PhD students and four undergraduates who contribute to this tool development as well as conduct their own empirical research in comparative phylogeography. 

Publications

 

2010 W. Huang*, N. Takebayashi, Y. Qi***, and Hickerson, M.J. MTML-MSBAYES – Inferring temporal biogeographic congruence across with multiple loci data. BMC Bioinformatics: in press

2010 Ilves, K.**, W. Huang*, J.P. Wares, and M. J. Hickerson. Congruent histories of colonization and/or mitochondrial selective sweeps across the North Atlantic intertidal assemblage. Molecular Ecology: DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04790.x

2010 Hickerson, M. J., B. C. Carstens, J. Cavender-Bares, K. A. Crandall, C. H. Graham, J. B. Johnson, L. Rissler, P. F. Victoriano, and A.D. Yoder. Phylogeography’s past, present, and future: 10 years after Avise 2000. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution; doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2009.09.016

2010 Beaumont, M., Nielsen, R, Robert, C., Hey, J., Gaggiotti, O., Knowles, L.,   Estoup, A., Panchal, M., Corander, Hickerson, M., Sisson, S., Fagundes, N., Chikhi, L., Beerli, P., Vitalis, R., Cornuet, J.-M., Huelsenbeck, J., M., Foll, M., Yang, Z., Rousset, F.,   Balding, D., and Excoffier, L., In defense of model-based inference in phylogeography (Reply: Templeton 2009). Molecular Ecology doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04515.x

2009 Carnaval, A. C., M.J. Hickerson, C.F.B. Haddad, M.T. Rodrigues, and C. Moritz. Late Stability predicts genetic diversity in the Brazilian Atlantic forest hotspot. Science; 323: 785-789

2009 Lozier J. D., Aniello P., and M.J. Hickerson. Predicting the distribution of Sasquatch in western North America: anything goes with ecological niche modeling. Journal of Biogeography. doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02152.x

2008 Hickerson, M.J., and C. Meyer. Testing comparative phylogeographic models of marine vicariance and dispersal using a hierarchical Bayesian approach. BMC Evolutionary Biology; doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-322

2006 Hickerson, M.J., G. Dolman, and C. Moritz. Phylogeographic summary statistics for testing histories of co-distributed taxon-pairs. Molecular Ecology 15: 209-224.

2006 Hickerson, M.J., C. Meyer, and C. Moritz. DNA-Barcoding will often fail to Discover New Animal Species over Broad Parameter Space. Systematic Biology 55: 729-739