Faculty

Christopher H. Haufler - Systematic Botany
Professor
Ph.D., Indiana University
Phone: (785) 864-3255
Fax: (785) 864-5294
 

Area of Interest and Research

The biology of ferns, especially systematics and evolution, biogeography, and population genetics.

Current Activities/Research Program

• Reconstructing the phylogeny of the fern family Polypodiaceae using a combination of features from DNA sequencing, morphology, and biogeography. I am collaborating on this study with Drs. Tom Ranker (University of Colorado, Boulder) and Alan Smith (University of California, Berkeley).
• Studying patterns and processes of speciation in ferns using analysis of breeding systems, population biology, and ecology. Focusing on patterns of ecology and biogeography provides hypotheses of change over space and time that can be tested. I anticipate continuing these investigations. I am also interested in the impact that polyploidy has had on fern genomes and studying how the genetic systems of ferns have been influenced by their polyploid histories. Finally, I am pursuing revisions of the genera that constitute the reconstituted family Polypodiaceae.

Representative Publications

Sciarretta, K. L., E. P. Arbuckle, C. R. Werth, and C. H. Haufler. 2005. Patterns of genetic variation in southern Appalachian populations of Athyrium filix-femina var. asplenioides (Dryopteridaceae) International Journal of Plant Science 166: 761–780.

Smith, A. R, H-P. Kreier, H. Schneider, C. H. Haufler and T. A. Ranker. 2006. Serpocaulon (Polypodiaceae), a new genus segregated from old Polypodium. Taxon 55: 919–930.

Haufler, C. H. 2007. Genetics, phylogenetics, and biogeography: Considering how shifting paradigms and continents influence fern diversity. Brittonia: 59: 108–114.

Book:

T. A. Ranker and C. H. Haufler. 2008. The Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes. Cambridge University Press; 480pp.