comparing historic and current plant-pollinator interactions to study global change effects

collaborators: Tiffany Knight (Washington University in St. Louis), Anny Chung (Rice University), and John Marlin (Illinois Natural History Survey)

summary: Although there is extensive research investigating how individual species of plants and animals are being affected by climate change and other anthropogenic forces, virtually nothing is known about how species interactions are being disrupted at the community level. In the late 1800's, the entomologist Charles Robertson meticulously documented all of the plant-pollinator interactions in the town of Carlinville, Illinois. We are recollecting these data and comparing historic interaction networks with those that persist today to understand how plant-pollinator interactions are changing over time as a function of climate change, invasive species, and land-use change

★ Listen to a podcast of our research highlighted on Morning Edition of NPR here.

★Ryder Diaz wrote a piece, Reading Between the Grains, about our work using pollen from current and historic bee specimens to better understand changes in pollinator behavior over the last century.

the role of an invasive plant on food web structure across ecosystem boundaries

collaborators: Kevin G. Smith (Tyson Research Center & Washington University) and Joe Mihaljevic (University of Colorado at Boulder)

summary: Consumer-resource interactions can strongly influence community structure and function and can have far-reaching efffects via trophic cascades, even crossing ecosystem boundaries. However, less is known about how invasive plants alter food web structure. We are investigating how purple loosestrife, a common invasive plant of wetlands, affects aquatic and terrestrial food webs.

the accumulation of species-interactions with area in Ozark glades

collaborators: Tiffany Knight (Washington University)

summary: By sampling plant-pollinator interactions in glades of different sizes, we are asking: at what rate do plant-pollinator interactions accumulate with area, relative to plant and pollinator species? Are these patterns different than what we would expect by chance? And how does plant-pollinator network structure differ among glades of sizes?

Solidago genotypic diversity and interactions with pollinators

collaborators: Lara Souza (University of Tennessee)

summary: To what degree does Solidago genotypic diversity, nutrient treatments, and their interaction influence (1) the diversity of plant traits (flower production, height, phenology) and (2) visitation patterns and community composition of pollinators?

Other interests and research projects

• effects of nitrogen enrichment on plants, pollinators, and their interactions. Rocky Mountain Biological Lab, Colorado.
• plant fitness and pollinator health in agricultural systems, along urban-rural gradients
• effects of invasive plants on pollinators
• causes and consequences of native plant and pollinator diversity at different spatial scales
• pollinator and plant responses to habitat modification, especially fire, grazing and fragmentation
• establishment of bee species in newly restored habitats. Glades at Tyson Research Center, Missouri