MSc (Wits) PhD (UCT)
Professor. Nigel's main research interests are based around the application of DNA techniques (mainly DNA sequencing) to resolving the evolutionary and biogeographic history of plants and animals of southern Africa. His research group (known as the Molecular Ecology and Systematics Group - MESG) has thus worked on organisms such as grasses, daisies, Proteas, mussels, crabs, prawns, cicadas, mayflies and snails. He has recently launched a new reserach programme on the flora and fauna of the southern regions of the Great Escarpment of South Africa. This research programme includes biodiversity surveys, analyses of endemism and diversity, phylogenetics, phylogeography and biogeographic analyses of plants and animals.
Some recent publications include:
Buys MH, Janse van Rensburg LL, Mienie CMS, Barker N, Burgoyne PM, Mills L, Van Rensburg L and Hartmann H (2008). Applying AFLPs in Aizoaceae: The Delosperma herbeum complex as a case study. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 36:92-100.
Kelly CMR, Barker NP, Villet MH, Broadley DG and Branch WR (2008). The snake family Psammophiidae (Reptilia: Serpentes): Phylogenetics and species delimitation in the African sand snakes (Psammophis Boie, 1825) and allied genera. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47:1045-1060.
McKenzie RJ, Hjertson M and Barker NP (2008). Typification of the name Arctotis lanata and those of some southern African Haplocarpha species (Asteraceae, Arctotideae). Taxon 57:612-614.