Emily Sessa
Patricia K. Holmgren Director, William and Lynda Steere Herbarium
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison
Specialty
Ecology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes
Expertise
Systematics, phylogenetics, historical biogeography, diversification, reticulate evolution, community assembly
Research locations
Eastern North America, Africa
Profile
Emily Sessa’s research focuses broadly on plant systematics and evolution, and she is particularly interested in understanding the evolution of ferns and lycophytes. These two lineages have existed for hundreds of millions of years, and their members have survived major mass extinction events throughout Earth’s history and continue to play critical roles in modern ecosystems. Emily and her lab members work on a number of different topics to understand the ecology and evolution of these plants, including studying historical biogeography and diversification processes and the ecology of fern gametophytes.
Resources:
Selected Publications
- Testo WL, AL de Gasper, S Molino, JM Gabriel y Gálan, A Salino, VA de Oliveira Dittrich, and EB Sessa. (2022) Deep vicariance and frequent transoceanic dispersal shape the evolutionary history of a globally distributed fern family. American Journal of Botany. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16062 PDF
- Marchant DB, G Chen, S Cai, J Jenkins, S Shu, C Plott, J Webber, J Lovell, G He, L Sandor, M Williams, S Rajasekar, A Healey, K Barry, Y Zhang, EB Sessa, PG Wolf, A Harkess, F-W Li, P Schafran, A Becker, L Gramzow, D Xue, Y Wu, F Chen, T Tong, Y Wang, F Dai, S Hua, H Wang, S Xu, F Xu, H Duan, G Theißen, RJ Schmitz, D Stevenson, B Ambrose, JA Banks, JH Leebens-Mack, J Grimwood, J Schmutz, PS Soltis, DE Soltis, and Z-H Chen. (2022) Ancient yet Dynamic: The Evolution of a Fern Genome. Nature Plants 8(9): 1038–1051. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01226-7 PDF
- Karichu MJ, BK Ngarega, GE Onjalalaina, P Kamau, and EB Sessa. (2022) Ecological niche modeling predicts the potential distributions of African Azolla species and their implications for African wetland ecosystems. Ecology and Evolution 12(8): e9210. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9210 PDF
- Pelosi JA, EH Kim, WB Barbazuk, and EB Sessa. Phylotranscriptomics illuminates the placement of whole genome duplications and gene retention in ferns. Frontiers in Plant Sciences 13: 882441. 23 pages. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpls.2022.882441 PDF
- Pinson JB, SM Chambers, and EB Sessa. The spatial separation of Callistopteris baueriana (Hymenophyllaceae) sporophytes and gametophytes along elevation gradients on the island of Oahu, Hawai’i. American Fern Journal 112(1): 1–16. doi: https://doi.org/10.1640/0002-8444-112.1.1 PDF
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