Aarhus Universitets segl

PEB group

Members of the Plant Evolution and Biodiversity group

Wolf L. Eiserhardt

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

I am a botanist trained at the universities of Hamburg (Germany) and Aarhus (Denmark). Now I am an Associate Professor at Aarhus University, and an Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK). I am broadly interested in the evolution and geographic distribution of plant diversity, and study these subjects mostly using phylogenomics and spatial statistics. I have a special interest in places with very high plant diversity, such as the Cape of South Africa, tropical rainforests, or mountains. The plant group I know most about are the palms (Arecaceae).

Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ORCID

Staff page at Aarhus University (incl. short CV)

Twitter: @w_eiserhardt

                      

Paola De Lima Ferreira

POSTDOC

Paola works on species-level phylogenomics and diversification history of the palm family.

Staff page at Aarhus University:

                      

Hanchen Shuai

Lønnet ph.d-stipendiat

Hanchen Shuai

RESEARCH FELLOW

Hanchen works on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of species ranges and their size in palms

Staff page at Aarhus University

Camilla Håkansson

LAB TECHNICIAN

Camilla is in charge of our phylogenomics work in the lab

MSc students:

Krisitine Nørtoft Kristensen:works on the species-level phylogenomics of the endemic Malagasy palm tribe Dyspidinae

BSc students:

August H. C. Søndergaard works on the species-level phylogenomics of the endemic Malagasy palm tribe Dyspidinae


Alumni

Previous students/postdocs supervised by Wolf Eiserhardt:

Postdocs:

PhD students:

  • Oscar B. Wrisberg, ”Exploring patterns of plant speciation using phylogenetic trees and global checklists of taxonomy and distribution” (2024)
  • Peter Petoe, ”Species discovery and moography in two Malesian palm hotspots” (2025)
  • Lars Emil S. F. Hansen, “Evolution within a Biodiversity Hotspot: Diversification and Distribution of the Palms of Madagascar” (2024)
  • Michelangelo S. Moerland, “A phylogenomic study of Saxifraga (Saxifragaceae)” (2023)
  • Pirada Sumanon, “Taxonomy, Phylogenomics and Biogeography of Maesa (Primulaceae)” (2022)
  • Benedikt G. Kuhnhäuser, “Phylogenomics and biogeography of the calamoid palms” (2021) (main supervisor: William J Baker)

MSc students:

  • Nina Hauvgaard Degn, “The Palms of Madagascar: Species distributions and the impact of functional traits” (2024)
  • Josephine E. A. Connelly, “Soybean for the Future: Population Genetic Analysis of a Swedish Genebank Collection in Comparison to a Core Collection Pre-adapted to Cold Climate” (2023) – project at the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics
  • Laura Kragh Frederiksen, ”Systematics and biogeography of the Cryptocarya group (Lauraceae)” (2023)
  • Jeppe Therkildsen Madsen, ”Climate Changes and Saxifrages - Future developments for an arctic-alpine plant group” (2020)
  • Alexander Venzel Rudbeck, "A map of phylogenetic knowledge: spatial barriers and bias in the Darwinian shortfall" (2020)
  • Emil Muff Munk, "The importance of biome definition for quantifying plant species richness and phylogenetic composition in tropical rainforests" (2020)
  • Maya Schrödl, "Colonization and diversification history of Madagascan palms with new phylogenomic evidence from the genus Orania (Arecaceae)" (2020)
  • Matthew Jeffery, "From Lush Lowlands to the Roof of the World: Leaf Economics and Habitat Evolution in Saxifrages (Genus Saxifraga L.)" (2017)
  • Michael Kröncke, "The effects of flowering phenology of Empetrum hermaphroditum on gene flow between subpopulations along snow cover gradients)" (2014)

BSc students:

  • Trine Darchy Bodilsen, “Assigning palm species to biomes” (2024)
  • Kristine Nørtoft Kristensen, “The effect of multi-copy genes on a phylogeny of Ceroxyloideae” (2023)
  • Sarah Valentin, “Recovery of plastid DNA to investigate the backbone phylogeny of subtribe Dypsidinae” (2022)
  • Josephine Connelly, "Phylogenetic analysis of Ravenea (tribe Ceroxyleae): A phylogenomic approach to species level tree estimation using target capture" (2019)
  • Alexander Venzel Rudbeck, "Phylogenetic analysis of Vaccinieae with a particular focus on the polyphyletic genus Vaccinium" (2018)