Member Institutions:

• Bowling Green State U.
• Cleveland State U.
• Kent State U.
• Medical College of Ohio
• Miami U.
• The Ohio State U.
• Ohio U.
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Toledo
• Wright State U.
• Youngstown State U.

Research Interests

My research is focused on the evolution, systematics, and historical biogeography of plants that are adapted to extreme and stressful environments. Additionally, functional evolutionary genetics of plant adaptations are studied. Study objects are desert and alpine poppies, desert sunflowers, juniper trees, and diverse tropical mangrove plant groups. My work involves molecular and traditional plant systematic techniques, including DNA sequencing, molecular fingerprint techniques, genetic mapping, ecophysiological methods, and morphological and anatomical techniques. Laboratory work is complemented by field studies and collection expeditions conducted in the southwestern regions of the U.S. and in various tropical regions of the world. Results of my studies are used to reconstruct the origin and spread of plant species in time and to understand adaptive changes during speciation accompanied by occupation of new habitats. Phylogenetic, population and conservation genetics data are used for management of rare plant species. I am also involved in floristic studies in Ohio.

Selected Publications

• Schwarzbach, A. E. and L.A. McDade. 2002. Phylogenetic relationships of the mangrove family Avicenniaceae based on chloroplast and nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences. Systematic Botany 27: 84-98.
• Rosenthal, D. M., A.E.Schwarzbach, L.A. Donovan, O. Raymond, and L.H. Rieseberg. 2002. Phenotypic differentiation between three ancient hybrid taxa and their parental species. International Journal of Plant Sciences 163: 387-398.
• Schwarzbach, A.E. and R.E. Ricklefs. 2001. The use of molecular data in mangrove plant research. Wetlands Ecology and Management. 9: 195-201.
• Schwarzbach, A.E., L.A. Donovan, and L.H. Rieseberg. 2001. Transgressive character expression in a hybrid sunflower species. American Journal of Botany 88: 270-277.
• L.H. Rieseberg, A.E. Schwarzbach, and L.A Donovan. 2000. Ecological divergence of hybrid lineages. INTECOL Newsletter 3/2000: 8.
• Schwarzbach, A.E. and R.E. Ricklefs. 2000. Systematic affinities of Rhizophoraceae and Anisophylleaceae, and intergeneric relationships within Rhizophoraceae, based on chloroplast DNA, nuclear ribosomal DNA, and morphology. American Journal of Botany 87: 547-564.
• Schwarzbach, A.E. and J.W. Kadereit. 1999. Phylogeny of prickly poppies, Argemone (Papaveraceae), and the evolution of morphological and alkaloid characters based on ITS rDNA sequence variation. Plant Systematics and Evolution 218: 257-279.

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