Colonization and evolution in oceanic islands

The research group has been studying dispersal patterns of mosses and angiosperms over the last decade. In the current research period, the group is devoted to reconstruction of colonization processes and further evolution of species on oceanic islands based on floristic, taxonomic, chorological, phylogeographic, phylogenetic and population genetic analyses. A three-scale approach is proposed to be undertaken for the inference of the colonization history of plants in any oceanic archipelagos. We hypothesize that plant colonists that meet dispersal syndromes, regular dispersal mechanisms and suitable habitats are more likely to have succeeded in intra-island (short-distance dispersal, SDD), inter-island (medium-distance dispersal, MDD) and mainland-archipelago (long-distance dispersal, LDD) colonizations.