Michael D. Pirie
Associate Professor in Botany, University Museum of Bergen, Norway
Latest:
Since June 2019 I'm curator at the Arboretum and Associate Prof. at the Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen, Norway.
Contact me to discuss potential BSc or MSc projects - topics could include phylogenomics of European or Cape Erica clades and analysis of high throughput sequence data for gene tree inference
May 2018: Profile in JGU Magazin (auf Deutsch): URL
Research interests:
The focus of my research is on hypothesis testing using molecular phylogenetic techniques. I have worked with various groups mainly of flowering plants (in particular Annonaceae; Danthonioideae [Poaceae]; and Erica [Ericaceae]) to address questions including why tropical South America is so diverse; what are the forces driving patterns of dispersal and diversification across the tropics, the continents of the Southern Hemisphere, or mountain systems such as the New Zealand Southern Alps and South African Cape fold mountains; and whether diversification has been influenced by particular phenomena such as shifts in morphological or physiological attributes or hybridisation. I am interested in the methodologies of phylogenetic systematics, in particular the fast developing fields of phylogenomics, molecular dating and reconstructing reticulate species phylogenies; and also in taxonomy and classification.
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0403-4470; Academic history; Publications via Google Scholar, new species via Wikispecies, collections and dets via Binomia.net; reviews via Web of Science; LinkedIn profile. Email: michael.pirie at uib.no; Twitter: @PirieMike
Kandziora, M., Gehrke, B., Popp, M., Gizaw, A., Brochmann, C., & Pirie, M.D. 2022. The enigmatic tropical alpine flora on the African sky islands is young, disturbed, and unsaturated. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119: e2112737119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2112737119
Pirie, M.D., Blackhall-Miles, R., Bourke, G., Crowley, D., Ebrahim, I., Forest, F., Knaack, M., Koopman, R., Lansdowne, A., Nürk, N.M., Osborne, J., Pearce, T.R., Rohrauer, D., Smit, M., & Wilman, V. 2022. Preventing species extinctions: A global conservation consortium for Erica. PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET 4 (4): 335–344. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10266
Pirie, M.D., Oliver, E.G.H., Mugrabi de Kuppler, A., Gehrke, B., Le Maitre, N.C., Kandziora, M., & Bellstedt, D.U. (2016). The biodiversity hotspot as evolutionary hot-bed: spectacular radiation of Erica in the Cape Floristic Region. BMC Evol. Biol. 16: 1-11 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-016-0764-3
Kadereit, G., Ackerly, D., & Pirie, M.D. (2012). A broader model for C4 photosynthesis evolution in plants inferred from the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae s.s.). Proc. R. Soc. B. 279: 3304-3311 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.0440
Pirie, M.D., & Doyle, J.A. (2012). Dating clades with fossils and molecules: the case of Annonaceae. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 69: 84-116 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2012.01234.x
Pirie, M.D., Humphreys, A.M., Barker, N.P. & Linder, H.P. (2009) Reticulation, data combination and inferring evolutionary history: an example from Danthonioideae. Syst. Biol., 58: 612-628 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syp068