Research Interests
In the Jacobs Lab we study the coevolution of Earth and Life. Our approaches are synthetic and involve a wide range of questions and different combinations of data and analysis to answer them.
One suite of questions involves how deep-time environments influenced the initial evolution of complexity in eukaryotes and multi-cellular organisms as well as the subsequent diversity of life. These questions range in scale from the development of individual fossil forms and the modeling of processes associated with particular paleo-communities, to global scale impacts on diversity. Some of these questions are addressed with data from the fossil record. However, questions relating to evolution of cellular and development complexity centered around the Cambrian radiation are approached with a wide variety of molecular techniques.
Another suite of questions involves more recent geologic, climate and anthropogenic processes and how they influence coastal speciation and conservation. Here, we study how tectonic and sea-level processes form coasts, how coastal processes form habitat, and how these factors influence genetic differentiation and speciation. Here, again we employ a range of molecular tools. We then also apply historical ecology to better understand human impacts, their relationship to the past behavior of the system, and their implications for future climate and sea-level change. Study areas include the coasts of California and the Gulf of California as well as Polynesia. This coastal work has fundamental and applied aspects. It addresses basic understanding of coast formation processes and there impacts on biological evolution and diversity of coastal species. This then leads to management implications relative to the restoration of coastal habitat, and the management of endangered species.