Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Ecology and Macroevolution
City University of New York (CUNY), New York City, USA
2016-2018
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Faculty
Faculty
Aduse-Poku Kwaku
Assistant Professor
Department/Office
- Biology
School/College
- College of Arts & Sciences
Biography
My research lies at the intersection of ecology and evolution, with a central focus on understanding how biodiversity is generated, maintained, and lost across both geological and ecological timescales. I use butterflies as a model system—particularly those distributed across the Old World tropics (mainland Africa, Madagascar, and Asia)—to investigate these fundamental questions. Butterflies are among the best-known and most extensively studied insect groups and have long served as key model organisms in evolutionary biology. I integrate genome-scale sequence data with morphological evidence to examine how historical geological events and contemporary ecological processes have shaped patterns of diversification and species distributions. Specifically, my research explores the roles of host plant associations, plate tectonics, paleoclimate dynamics, and paleo-vegetation (biome) shifts in driving evolutionary diversification. By combining phylogenomics with biogeographic and ecological analyses, my work aims to provide a deeper understanding of the processes underlying biodiversity patterns in tropical ecosystems.
Education & Expertise
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Ecology and Evolution
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2016
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Wildlife (Biodiversity) Management
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi GHANA
2014
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Ecology and Evolution
University of Groningen, Groningen, THE NETHERLANDS
2009
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)
Natural Resources Management
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi GH
2003
Expertise
Evolution
Ecology
Phylogenetics
Systematics
Biogeography
Comparative Genomics
Butterflies
Academics
Academics
BIOL 003 (Life Sciences Non-Majors Biology)
This course is designed as an introductory natural science offering. It is designated as one of the general education course offerings in the College of Arts and Sciences
BIOL 230: Ecology Lec/Lab
Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. This course provides a background in the fundamental principles of ecological science at the population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Students will acquire a thorough understanding of the scientific field of ecology, how ecologists conduct research, and the importance of general ecological knowledge. Topics include the coevolution of the biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere; biogeochemical cycles; the flow of energy and materials through ecosystems; regulation of the abundance and distribution of organisms in an environment; structure and function of ecosystems; trophic dynamics; models of population growth; and species interactions
BIOL 502 Special Topics in Ecology and Evolution
Research
Research
Specialty
Evolution, Ecology, Phylogenetics, Systematics, Biogeography, Comparative Genomics, ButterfliesGroup Information
As a lab our research lies at the nexus of ecology and evolution. We are most interested in understanding how biodiversity is generated, maintained, and get lost over geological and ecological time scales. We use butterflies as a model system, especially those distributed in the Old-World tropics (mainland Africa, Madagascar, and Asia) in exploring these long-held questions. Butterflies are arguably the best-known and well-studied insect group and have long been an important model in many areas of biology. I use genome-scale sequence (and morphological) data to investigate how past geological events as well as ecological and evolutionary factors influenced the diversification and contemporary distributions of butterflies. The explored factors include host plant use, plate tectonics, paleoclimate, and paleo-vegetation or biome change.
Accomplishments
Accomplishments
John C Marsden Medal
Given by the Linnaean Society of London in 2017 for the best PhD biology thesis in the UK
Torben Larsen Memorial Tankard Award
Given by the Lepidopterists' Society of Africa (LepSoc) in 2015 for outstanding contributions to African butterfly research
AFORNET Young Scientist Award
A fellowship award given in 2005 by the African Academy of Sciences
UNESCO MAB Young Scientists Award
A research fellowship given in 2005 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Eponyms - Lycaenid butterfly
Aslauga kwakui, Libert 2016
Publications and Presentations
Publications and Presentations
Global Climate Cooling Spurred Skipper Butterfly Diversification
Global Climate Cooling Spurred Skipper Butterfly Diversification
Characterizing drivers governing the diversification of species-rich lineages is challenging. Although butterflies are one of the most well-studied groups of insects, there are few comprehensive studies investigating their diversification dynamics. Here, we reconstruct a phylogenomic tree for ca. 1,500 species in the family Hesperiidae, the skippers, to test whether historical global climate change, geographical range evolution, and host-plant association are drivers of diversification.
Around the World in 26 Million Years
Grass-yellow butterflies (Eurema) are a group of pantropical Pieridae distributed throughout Asia, Australasia, Africa and the New World. However, little is known about their diversification, including the biogeographic mechanism(s) explaining their circumglobal distribution. We present the first densely sampled, time-calibrated phylogeny and biogeographic reconstruction of grass-yellows to confirm the monophyly of the genera, re-evaluate their taxonomy and infer the biogeographic events contributing to their worldwide distribution.
Habitat opening fostered diversity
The opening of habitats associated with the emergence of C4 grasslands during the Neogene had a massive influence on the evolution of plant and animal communities. Strikingly, the impacts of grassland expansion on species diversification in Africa, where the largest surface of grasslands and savannas in the world is located, are not well understood. To explore the impact of habitat opening, we investigate the evolution of noctuid stemborers, a group of moths mostly associated with open habitats, and whose diversity is centered in the Afrotropics. We generate a dated molecular phylogeny for ca 80% of the known stemborer species, and assess the role of habitat opening on the evolutionary trajectory of the group through a combination of parametric historical biogeography, ancestral character state estimation, life history traits and habitat-dependent diversification analyses.
Comprehensive phylogeny of Pieridae butterflies reveals strong correlation between diversification and temperature
Temperature is thought to be a key factor influencing global species richness patterns. We investigate the link between temperature and diversification in the butterfly family Pieridae by combining next generation DNA sequences and published molecular data with fine-grained distribution data. We sampled nearly 600 pierid butterfly species to infer the most comprehensive molecular phylogeny of the family and curated a distribution dataset of more than 800,000 occurrences.
A global phylogeny of butterflies reveals their evolutionary history, ancestral hosts and biogeographic origins
Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera.
Phylogeny of the Poritiinae (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), butterflies with ant associations and unusual lichenivorous diets
The Poritiinae are a diverse subfamily of lycaenid butterflies with about 700 species divided into two major groups: the Asian endemic tribe Poritiini, and the African endemic tribe Liptenini. Among these, the Liptenini are notable for their lichenivorous diet and the strong but apparently non-mutualistic ant associations of many species. We present the first molecular phylogeny for this subfamily, based on data from 14 gene regions, and including 218 representatives from 177 taxa (approximately 25% of species) in 50 of the 58 (86%) recognized genera.