Alastair Culham (born 1965) is an English botanist. He is a member of the staff of the School of Biological Sciences at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

Forest fire's environmental impact could last a decade
, . and Curator of the University of Reading Herbarium (RNG).Coco-de-mer arrives at Reading University Herbarium
. He specialises in

plant taxonomy Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

biosystematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the Correlation and dependence, relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: c ...

and applications of techniques from

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

and

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...

. He focuses on broad-based research in

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

and

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

. One aspect of his research concerns the effects of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

on biodiversity. He has contributed to papers on the impacts of climate change on plant evolution as well as reviews of data source quality and computational approaches to large-scale niche modelling. His work on the evolutionary biology of plants of interest to horticulture includes relationships within '' Pelargonium'' (a collaboration with Mary Gibby of the

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

), evolutionary patterns within plant genera on islands, with emphasis on ''

Echium ''Echium'' is a genus of approximately 70 species and several subspecies of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae. Species of ''Echium'' are native to North Africa, mainland Europe to Central Asia, and the Macaronesian islands where ...

'', the phylogenetic history of ''

Drosera ''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginou ...

'' and phylogenetic and taxonomic revision on '' Actaea'' and

Ranunculaceae Ranunculaceae (buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide. The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 species), ''Delphinium' ...

tribe Actaeae (in collaboration with James Compton), a phylogenetic evaluation of ''

Plectranthus ''Plectranthus'' is a genus of about 85 species of flowering plants from the sage family, Lamiaceae, found mostly in southern and tropical Africa and Madagascar. Common names include spur-flower. ''Plectranthus'' species are herbaceous perennia ...

'' and ''

Solenostemon ''Solenostemon'' is a former genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. It has been included in the genus '' Plectranthus'', but is now included in an expanded ''Coleus''. They are native to tropical Africa, Asia and Australia. Some sp ...

'' (coleus) (in collaboration with Alan Paton from the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

) and recently a review of ''

Cyclamen ''Cyclamen'' ( or ) is a genus of 23 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. ''Cyclamen'' species are native to Europe and the Mediterranean Basin east to the Caucasus and Iran, with one species in Somalia. They gro ...

'' phylogeny and classification (in collaboration with James Compton and The Cyclamen Society). Culham is also engaged in research on the use of

molecular marker A molecular marker is a molecule, sampled from some source, that gives information about its source. For example, DNA is a molecular marker that gives information about the organism from which it was taken. For another example, some proteins can be ...

s for the study of genetic diversity within plant populations for the conservation of endangered species. This was applied in a project to determine the genetic diversity within

Toromiro ''Sophora toromiro'', commonly known as toromiro, is a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to Easter Island. History Heavy deforestation had eliminated most of the island's forests by the first half of th ...

(''Sophora toromiro''), an endemic plant of

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its ne ...

(in collaboration with Mike MaunderHunt for Easter tree, Times Higher
). In fungi he has worked on development of molecular markers for identification of phytopathogenic soil fungi of the genus ''

Fusarium ''Fusarium'' is a large genus of filamentous fungi, part of a group often referred to as hyphomycetes, widely distributed in soil and associated with plants. Most species are harmless saprobes, and are relatively abundant members of the soil mi ...

'' with colleagues Roland Fox and Prashant Mishra of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. As of 2012 he coordinates the i4Life project, having recently completed the project that built the

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxonomic I ...

. Along with Vernon Heywood, Richard Kenneth Brummitt and Ole Seberg, Culham is the author of the standard reference book, '' Flowering Plant Families of the World''.Heywood, V.H. , Brummit, R.K., Culham, A. and Seberg, O. (2007) Flowering plant families of the world. Kew Books (Europe) Firefly Books (North America). He also sits on the editorial board of the ''

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a scientific journal publishing original papers relating to the taxonomy of all plant groups and fungi, including anatomy, biosystematics, cytology, ecology, ethnobotany, electron microscopy, ...

'' and the Science Committee of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

References

External links

University of Reading profile

Blog posts on 'Digitally Ready'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Culham, Alastair British botanists Living people Academics of the University of Reading 1965 births