Jason Kolbe Lab

Dr. Jason Kolbe

Dr. Kolbe is an associate professor at the University of Rhode Island. His research focuses on how human-mediated global change (biological invasions, climate change, urbanization, etc.) drive evolutionary change in natural populations.

In particular, Dr. Kolbe's research has looked into specific areas of this topic, mainly focusing on the Anolis lizard and the species they interact with and reconstructing their invasion history.

One major project has been studying how hurricanes and other extreme events can serve as a form of natural selection among the Anolis lizard. Another major project has looked into the ecological responses of the lizard to urban environments.

In addition, Dr. Kolbe's lab uses phylogenetic and population-genetic analyses of molecular variation to reconstruct the history of invasions among the Anolis lizard. This helps answer questions, such as:

• From where do introduced populations originate?

• What is the route of colonization?

• How many individuals have to be introduced to result in populations being established?

• Did introductions occur from single or multiple native-range sources?

Answering these questions helps better test hypotheses for invasion success, and finding out how evolutionary mechanisms interact to create genetic changes during invasions.

Students interested in Dr. Kolbe's lab are encouraged to contact him at jjkolbe@uri.edu