FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Staff Spotlight

FLAS Herbarium

Concurrent Appointments

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biology

Research Interests

My research focuses on two main general areas: 1) taxonomy, systematics, and biogeography and 2) biodiversity informatics and phyloinformatics.

1. I study the systematics and biogeography of two major flowering plant groups, Melastomataceae and Campanulaceae. Particularly, I focus on the Sonerileae, an Old World tribe that includes the complex Sonerila generic alliance, a poorly understood group of 12 or fewer genera, with 180-200 species, distributed from southern India to the Indo-Pacific Islands. In addition, I study the systematics and biogeography of Mediterranean Campanulaceae, especially the endemic lineages found in the Aegean area (eastern Mediterranean Sea). This area has a complex historical biogeography, highly rich in endemics and species complexes. Moreover, this is one of the most anthropogenic areas on Earth, where human pressure has dramatically shaped the landscape and biodiversity. Many taxa, whether endemics or not, are often highly localized and dependent on the preservation of a particular habitat. The Campanulaceae are an excellent group of study in this area because they are particularly diverse and rich in endemics, several of which may be facing extinction.
2. I am a co-developer of several tools (TOLKIN, HERBIS, and RegNum) that serve the biodiversity and phyloinformatics communities. I am especially interested in automated data capture, data storage, management, and analyses. A major goal of my research is to integrate existing technologies to provide a user-friendly environment where to carry out day-to-day operations, from a simple data query to image storing, scoring of morphological characters, uploading of DNA sequences, and analyses.

Courses Taught

• PCB 6605 Principles of Systematics (25%)
• BOT 5625 Plant Geography

Representative Publications

CELLINESE, N., SMITH, S.A., EDWARDS, E.J., KIM, S., HABERLE, R.C., AVRAMAKIS, & M., DONOGHUE, M.J. Historical Biogeography of the endemic Campanulaceae of Crete. Accepted, Journal of Biogeography (invited paper, special Issue on Mediterranean Biogeography).

Haberle, R.C., Dang, A., Lee, T., Peñaflor, C., Cortes-Burn, H., Oestreich, A., Raubenson, L., CELLINESE, N., Edwards, E., Kim, S.-T., Eddie, W.M.M., & Jansen, R.K. Accepted, TAXON. Taxonomic and biogeographic implications of a phylogenetic analysis of the Campanulaceae based on three chloroplast genes.

DE NATALE, A. & CELLINESE, N. Imperato, Cirillo, and a series of unfortunate events. - A novel approach to assess the unknown provenance of historical herbarium specimens. Accepted, TAXON

CELLINESE, N. 2007. Two new species in the genus Poikilogyne (Melastomataceae) from Papua New Guinea. Novon 17(1): 20-23

JARVIS, C. (N. Cellinese, Contributor) 2007. Order Out of Chaos: Linnean Plan Names and their Types. Linnean Society & Natural History Museum. ISBN: 0950620777

LAURIN, M., DE QUEIROZ, K., CANTINO, P., CELLINESE, N., & OLMSTEAD, R. 2005. The Phylocode, types, ranks and monophyly: a response to Pickett. Cladistics 21(6): 605-607.

CELLINESE, N., BEAMAN, R.S., HEIDORN, P.B., GREEN, A., & GUO, Y. 2005. Rapid digital specimen image and data capture: a web service solution. In XVII International Botanical Congress Abstracts, pp. 24. Vienna: Robidruck

KALMBACHER, R., CELLINESE, N. & MARTIN, F. 2005. Seed obtained by vacuuming the soil surface after fire. Native Plants Journal 6: 233-240.

CELLINESE, N. 2004. Melastomataceae. In: The Plants of Mount Kinabalu, 5. Dicotyledon Families Magnoliaceae to Winteraceae (Beaman, J.H. & C. Anderson, eds). Natural History Publications (Borneo) & Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

BEAMAN, R.S. & CELLINESE, N. 2004. Eight new species and a new name in the genus Elatostema (Urticaceae) on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Blumea 49(1): 135-144.

TERRELL, J.H., HART, J.P., BARUT, S., CELLINESE, N., CURET, A., DENHAM, T., KUSIMBA, C., LATINIS, K.D., OKA, R., PALKA, J., POHL, M.E.D, & POPE, K., WILLIAMS, P.R., HAINES, H. & STALLER, J.E. 2003. Domesticated Landscapes: The Subsistence Ecology of Plants and Animal Domestication. J. Archaeological Method and Theory 10(4): 323-368.

CELLINESE, N. 2003. Revision of the genus Phyllagathis Blume (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae). II. The species of Borneo and Natuna Island. Blumea 48(1): 69-97.

CELLINESE, N. 2002. Revision of the genus Phyllagathis Blume (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae). I. The species of Burma, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Blumea 47(3): 463-492.

RENNER, S.S., CLAUSING, G., CELLINESE, N. & MEYER, K. 2001. Melastomataceae, in K. Larsen and I. Nielsen (eds.), Flora of Thailand, 7: 412-496. Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand.

CELLINESE, N. 1997. A new Sonerila (Melastomataceae) from Central Kalimantan, Borneo. Novon 7(2): 103-105.

CELLINESE, N. & RENNER, S.S. 1997. New species and combinations of Sonerila and Phyllagathis (Melastomataceae) from Thailand. Novon 7(2): 106-112.

CELLINESE, N. 1997. Notes on the systematics and biogeography of the Sonerila generic alliance (Melastomataceae) with special focus on fruit characters. Tropical Biodiversity 4(1): 83-93.

SALICK, J., CELLINESE, N. & KNAPP, S. 1997. Indigenous Diversity of Cassava: Generation, maintanance, use and loss among the Amuesha, Peruvian Upper Amazon. Economic Botany 51(1): 6-19.

CELLINESE, N., JARVIS, C.E., PICHI-SERMOLLI, R.E.G., PRESS, J.R., SHORT, M.J. & VICIANI, D. 1996. The Threatened Plants of Italy: Pteridophyta. Mem. Accad. Lunigianese Sci. 66: 117-145.

Current External Funding

2006-2011	NSF-PBI 0614791 Collaborative Research: EuphORBia - a global inventory of the spurges. Co-PI (Paul Berry Leading PI).	$622,000
2006-2008	NSF-BDI 0630503. Herbarium Cyberinfrastucture Workshop. PI.	$30,818
2006-2010	NSF-AToL 0629686. Collaborative Research: Gymnosperms on the Tree of Life: Resolving the Phylogeny of Seed Plants. Co-PI (Sarah Mathews Leading PI).	$335,017
2005-2010	NSF-AToL 0531749. Collaborative Research: Assembling the Liverwort Tree of Life: A Window into the Evolution and Diversification of Early Land Plant. Co-PI (John Shaw Leading PI).	$378,176
2004-2008	NSF-BDI 0345341. Collaborative Research: Rapid Digital Specimen Image and Data Capture: A Web Services Solution. Co-PI (Reed Beaman Leading PI).	$525,804
2004-2009	NSF-AToL 0431258. Collaborative Research: Resolving the Trunk of the Angiosperm Tree and 12 of its Thorniest Branches. Co-PI (Doug Soltis Leading PI).	$1,015,268

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