During the 13-month tenure of his Mid-Career Fellowship in Environmental Biology, Dr. W. Dennis Clark will apply the techniques of molecular genetics (including DNA sequencing, restriction site mapping, and restriction fragment pattern analysis) to resolving problems of phylogeny within the neotropical plant family Bromeliaceae. These data will complement knowledge obtained from traditional morphology-based research on the group. Cladistic analysis will be used to extrapolate phylogenetic conclusions from the molecular data. Significant insights will be gained regarding family-level relationships of the Bromeliaceae, generic relationships within subfamily Tillandsioideae, subgeneric relationships within the large genus Tillandsia, and taxonomic relationships of species and species groups within Tillandsia subgenus Phytarrhiza. In addition, it is expected that the molecular genetic information will permit precise assessments of evolutionary patterns of habit types of tropical epiphytes. Dr. Clark teaches at Arizona State University in Tempe, but for the duration of the fellowship will be working at the University of California's Riverside campus.
