Weston Testo
  • About me
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Blog
  • Helpful stuff
  • In The Field
    • Dominican Republic 2019
    • Costa Rica 2019
    • Mexico 2018
    • Guatemala & Mexico 2017
    • Dominican Republic 2018
    • Ecuador & Colombia 2018
    • Switzerland/Austria/Italy 2018
    • Colombia 2017
    • Costa Rica & Panama 2017
    • Armenia & Nagorno-Karabakh 2016
    • Mexico 2016
    • Central America 2016
    • Colombia 2016

Fern and lycophyte evolution

About me
Welcome to my website!

I am broadly interested in understanding the ecology and evolution of land plants, particularly the spore-dispersed vascular plants: ferns and lycophytes. I am especially interested in the role of hybridization and polyploidy as forces shaping fern and lycophyte diversity in the American tropics and the systematics and taxonomy of the clubmoss family (Lycopodiaceae). To address these questions, I work extensively with natural history collections and integrate systematics, taxonomy, biogeography, phylogenomics, and functional ecology in my research. See my research page for more! 


I am currently a postdoc in the Antonelli Lab at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Currently, my principal research project focuses on modeling extinction risks for the imperiled flora of Hiospaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean. This project integrates natural history collections, biodiversity informatics, remote sensing, conservation, and modeling approaches. I am hoping that this work will help inform conservation efforts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic (the two countries that occupy the island of Hispaniola). 

I recently completed a postdoc in the Biology Department at the University of Florida, working on the Genealogy of Flagellate Plants with Emily Sessa. We have generated a lot of data through this project and have many ongoing projects resolving the evolutionary histories of thousands of species of bryophytes, lycophytes, ferns, and gymnosperms. A preprint outlining probe development and some pilot studies associated with that project can be found here. 

My CV is available here!


Reach me at:
Weston Testo
527 Bartram Hall 
Department of Biology
Box 118525
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
wtesto[at]ufl.edu
802-338-7174
Picture
On the hunt for ferns in Colombia with fern guru Wilson Rodriguez. Photo by Eduardo Posada.
Picture
A good haul: Asplenium trichomanes, A. ceterach, A. septentrionale, and Cheilanthes persica. At the Armenia-Iran border, summer 2016.
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  • About me
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Blog
  • Helpful stuff
  • In The Field
    • Dominican Republic 2019
    • Costa Rica 2019
    • Mexico 2018
    • Guatemala & Mexico 2017
    • Dominican Republic 2018
    • Ecuador & Colombia 2018
    • Switzerland/Austria/Italy 2018
    • Colombia 2017
    • Costa Rica & Panama 2017
    • Armenia & Nagorno-Karabakh 2016
    • Mexico 2016
    • Central America 2016
    • Colombia 2016