Insights on adaptive evolution, diversification and community assembly of the American oaks from the temperate zone to the tropics through long-term transborder collaboration

Fifteen years of collaborative research and US-Mexican exchange have fostered an emerging synthesis of the adaptive evolution, diversification and community assembly of the American oaks, a diverse and dominant tree lineage in North and MesoAmerica. Our work reveals a high latitude ancestor of the clade, despite a Mexican center of diversity. We find contrasting drivers of population genetic structure in the tropics and the temperate zone but repeated evidence for local adaptation and adaptive differentiation in function linked to environment. We have reciprocally trained students and fostered transborder conservation. We have also had a lot of fun!