Karen Bell
Karen Bell is a postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Her research involves molecular systematics and phylogeography of plants, particularly investigating natural and human-mediated dispersal. Her background is in molecular biology, biogeography and systematics. She started out in entomology, and moved into botany via research on plant–insect interactions. Karen’s current research includes phylogeography of Acacia (s.l.) farnesiana, a species with a pan-tropical distribution; and biogeography of Adansonia spp. (baobabs), a genus with a distribution that defies biogeographic expectations, with the highest species richness of extant species in Madagascar, a single species in continental Africa, and a single species in north-western Australia.
Projects
Publications
Pettigrew, J.D., Bell, K.L., Bhagwandin, A., Grinan, E., Jillani, N., Meyer, J., Wabuyele, E. and Vickers, C.E. (2012). Morphology, ploidy and molecular phylogenetics reveal a new diploid species from Africa in the baobab genus Adansonia (Malvaceae: Bombacoideae). Taxon 61, 1240–1250.
Bell, K.L. and Philips, T.K. (2012). Molecular systematics and evolution of the Ptinidae (Coleoptera: Bostrichoidea) and related families. Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society 165, 88–108. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00792.x
Heard, T.A., Dhileepan, K., Bebawi, F., Bell, K.L. and Segura, R. (2012). Jatropha gossypiifolia L. – Bellyache Bush. In M. Julien, R. McFadyen and J. Cullen (eds), Biological control of weeds in Australia, pp. 324–333. CSIRO publishing, Melbourne.
Bell, K.L., Heard, T.A. and Klinken, R.D. van (2011). Natural enemies of invasive Hymenachne amplexicaulis and its native congener in Australia and the potential for biological control. Biological Control 57, 130–137.
Bell, K.L. and Philips, T.K. (2009). New species of the myrmecophile Polyplocotes Westwood (Coleoptera: Ptinidae) from South Australia. Australian Journal of Entomology 48, 15-24.
Last updated 28 Mar 2013