Floral traits and plant reproductive ecology
Flowers are constellations of traits which work in concert with the biotic and abiotic environment to achieve reproductive success. I aim to interprets how floral traits address the reproductive challenges and opportunities presented by interactions with animals, other plants, and the abiotic environment. I combine empirical work in the field, greenhouse, and lab with theory to address questions relevant to three general aspects of plant reproductive ecology:
Chemical ecology
Plants use phytochemicals to mediate interactions with both mutualists and antagonists. But, because plant-mutualist and plant-herbivore interactions overlap in time and space, a tension exists between mutualist-attraction and defense against antagonism. I combine elements of optimal defense theory and mutualism theory with gas chromatographic mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to describe floral chemical traits, interpret their ecological roles, and to identify the selective pressures shaping flower chemistry. This has largely taken the form of examination of fruit and floral toxins as well as floral scent.
Multitrophic interactions and plant reproduction
The opportunities for and limitations to plant reproduction defined by pairwise plant-animal interactions may be modified by interactions across multiple trophic levels. Some of my work focuses on the ways in which plant neighborhoods modify interactions between plants and their animal partners (including pollinators and herbivores). Likewise, much of my chemical ecology work is driven by an attempt to understand how plants balance the needs to attract and reward pollinators and seed disperses against the need to avoid and limit herbivory (the "defense-attraction trade-off")
Floral strategies
Animal pollinated plants use a wide array of traits to attract, reward, and utilize pollinators. Each trait combination comes with a unique set of costs, attracts a sub-set of the animal community, and promotes different behavior patterns among these visitor species. In this way, each combination of floral traits may be viewed as a distinct floral "strategy". My work on floral strategies aims to understand how opportunities and limitations differ among strategies, why plant species employ one strategy over another, and what the expression of a given strategy might tell us about the ecological and evolutionary context that a plant species is embedded in.
My fieldwork is based in southwest Colorado (San Juan and West Elk ranges and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory) and the southern Appalachian Mountains.
Chemical ecology
Plants use phytochemicals to mediate interactions with both mutualists and antagonists. But, because plant-mutualist and plant-herbivore interactions overlap in time and space, a tension exists between mutualist-attraction and defense against antagonism. I combine elements of optimal defense theory and mutualism theory with gas chromatographic mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to describe floral chemical traits, interpret their ecological roles, and to identify the selective pressures shaping flower chemistry. This has largely taken the form of examination of fruit and floral toxins as well as floral scent.
Multitrophic interactions and plant reproduction
The opportunities for and limitations to plant reproduction defined by pairwise plant-animal interactions may be modified by interactions across multiple trophic levels. Some of my work focuses on the ways in which plant neighborhoods modify interactions between plants and their animal partners (including pollinators and herbivores). Likewise, much of my chemical ecology work is driven by an attempt to understand how plants balance the needs to attract and reward pollinators and seed disperses against the need to avoid and limit herbivory (the "defense-attraction trade-off")
Floral strategies
Animal pollinated plants use a wide array of traits to attract, reward, and utilize pollinators. Each trait combination comes with a unique set of costs, attracts a sub-set of the animal community, and promotes different behavior patterns among these visitor species. In this way, each combination of floral traits may be viewed as a distinct floral "strategy". My work on floral strategies aims to understand how opportunities and limitations differ among strategies, why plant species employ one strategy over another, and what the expression of a given strategy might tell us about the ecological and evolutionary context that a plant species is embedded in.
My fieldwork is based in southwest Colorado (San Juan and West Elk ranges and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory) and the southern Appalachian Mountains.
