Research


My research interests include plant community ecology, conservation biology, climate change, phylogenetics, and functional traits, especially regarding serpentine soils, coastal grasslands, and rare plants in California. 

I completed my PhD in Dr. Susan Harrison's lab at the University of California, Davis, on habit specialization and community assembly of plants on serpentine soils. In 2011, I completed a one-year postdoc with Dr. Harrison and the CA Dept. of Fish and Game (Biogeographic Data Branch) on climate change vulnerability of rare plants. Currently, I am beginning a new postdoc with Dr. Sharon Strauss at UC Davis.

My work with Dr. Strauss is an experimental test of phylogenetic relatedness and ecological similarity at Bodega Marine Reserve on the Sonoma Coast of California. The research builds upon recent results showing shared germination preferences and higher adult competition among closely related plant species (ie congeners); check out a recent paper here by Dr. Jean Burns and Dr. Strauss.


                       
                   California's "special" soils                                      Painting by Oscar Clarke


  
                                    How do 34 plant species coexist in this 50 x 50 cm area?!
                  
  Field site at Bodega Bay
   JB, Anu, and Risto hard at work at Bodega Bay                        Field site at Bodega Bay

News

May 2012

New review paper at Journal of Ecology. Damschen, Harrison, Ackerly, Going, and Anacker. 2012. Endemic plants on serpentine soils: Early victims or hardy survivors of climate change?

April 2012

New paper at Ecology! Going, Anacker, and Harrison. Temporal variability in California grasslands: soil fertility and species functional traits mediate response to climate. Manuscript available upon request.

Feb. 2012

New function in the JEPSON package, ver 1.4.2, to download geographic coordinates for plants from the Consortium of California Herbaria. Available from the R resources page.

Jan. 2012

New paper at American Naturalist! Anacker and Harrison. Historical and ecological controls on phylogenetic diversity in California plant communities.

Dec. 2011

I created a new package for R which should be useful to all Californian plant ecologists. It's called JEPSON: Information and maps for California plants.

Download Jepson from the R resources page and let me know what you think!


Nov. 2011

Check out a new paper on serpentine endemism and climate at Evolutionary Ecology. Anacker and Harrison 2011.


Oct. 2011

New publication on leaf traits and chaparral at Plant Ecology and Diversity. Anacker et al. 2011.

Also, new publication from an NCEAS working group on evolutionary differences in bird and mammal diversity gradients at Journal of Biogeography. Hawkins et al. 2011.


May 2011

Good news; I will be starting a postdoc with Sharon Strauss this fall!


Dec. 2010

"Serpentine: The Evolution and Ecology of a Model System" now for sale from UC Press.

Cover Image