Curator (Vascular Plants); Associate Professor EEB
About
Fields of study
Tropical biodiversity, molecular ecology, plant evolution
Research
My lab investigates evolutionary processes that underlie the rich diversity of tree species in tropical forests. My current work is focused on (1) the historical biogeography and community assembly of tropical forests, (2) fine scale spatial
genetic structure and gene flow, and (3) specimen-based molecular tools for biotic inventory of diverse tropical forests. The graduate students and post-docs in my lab are broadly interested in molecular ecology, and have worked on topics ranging from molecular systematics, chemical ecology, trophic structure, and plant-
herbivore interactions in temperate zone and tropical systems.
Select publications
2020
Bemmels*, J., A. Pérez, R. Valencia, C. W. Dick (in review) Patterns and drivers of population genetic structure in widespread Neotropical rainforest trees.
Allen, D., C. W. Dick, R. J. Burnham, I. Perfecto, J. Vandermeer (in review) The Michigan Big Woods research plot at the Edwin S. George Reserve, Pinckney, MI, USA
Vargas*, O. S., C. W. Dick (in press) Diversification history of Neotropical Lecythidaceae, an ecologically dominant tree family of Amazon rain forest. Chapter xx in Neotropical Diversification, edited by V. Rull and A. Carnaval.
Baker, P. A., S. C. Fritz, C. W. Dick, I. Prates, D. S. Battisti, O. M. Vargas, G. P. Asner, R. E. Martin, A. Wheatley (in press) Beyond Refugia: New insights on Quaternary climate variation and the evolution of biotic diversity in tropical South America. Chapter xx in Neotropical Diversification, edited by V. Rull and A. Carnaval.
2019
Nazareno*, C. W. Dick, L.G. Lohmann (2019) A biogeographic barrier test reveals a strong genetic structure for a canopy-emergent Amazonian tree species. Scientific Reports 9: 18602 open access
Dick, C. W., R. T. Pennington (2019) History and geography of neotropical tree diversity. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 50:279-301 Deep Blue
Vargas*, O., S. A. Smith, M. Heuertz, C. W. Dick (2019) Target sequence capture in the Brazil nut family (Lecythidaceae): marker selection and in silico capture from genome skimming data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 135: 98-104 Deep Blue
Bemmels, J. B., Knowles, L. L., C. W. Dick (2019) Survival near ice sheet margins for some, but not all, North American trees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 116 (17) 8431-8436. Deep Blue
Nazareno*, A. G., C. W. Dick, L.G. Lohmann (2019) Tangled Banks: A landscape genomic evaluation of Wallace’s Riverine Barrier Hypothesis for three Amazon plant species. Molecular Ecology 28:980–997. Deep Blue
2018
Allen, D., C. W. Dick, E. Strayer, I. Perfecto, J. Vandermeer (2018) Scale and strength of oak-mesophyte interactions in a transitional oak-hickory forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 48(11): 1366-1372.
Bemmels*, J. B., C. W. Dick (2018) Genomic evidence of a widespread southern distribution during the Last Glacial Maximum for two eastern North American hickory species. Journal of Biogeography 45:1739-1750. Deep Blue
Lowe, A. J., M. F. Breed, H. Caron, N. Colpaert, C. W. Dick, B. Finegan, M. Gardner, G. Gheysen, R. Gribel, J. Berton C. Harris, A. Kremer, M. Lemes, R. Margis, C. M. Navarro, F. Salgueiro, H. M. Villalobos-Barrantes, S. Cavers (2018) Standardized genetic diversity-life history correlates for improved genetic resource management of Neotropical trees. Diversity and Distributions 24 (6) 730-741 https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12716
Thomson*, A. M., O. M. Vargas*, C. W. Dick (2018) Complete plastome sequence from Bertholletia excelsa and 23 related species yield informative markers for Lecythidaceae. Applications in Plant Sciences 6(5) e1151 open access
Bemmels*, J. B., S. J. Wright, N. C. Garwood, N. A. Queenborough, R. Valencia, C. W. Dick (2018) Filter-dispersal assembly of lowland Neotropical rainforests across the Andes. Ecography 41: 1763–1775. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.03473
