How do ecological interactions contribute to community function and resistance?
Wild bee taking a break in a gentian flower to contemplate how her interactions contribute to community persistence.
Ecological communities consist of species that interact with each other in many ways, including mutually beneficial or mutualistic interactions. These mutualistic interactions provide essential ecosystem functions like pollination and seed dispersal, among others. In pollination mutualisms, partnerships between plants and pollinators determine the reproductive success of the plant species and the food collection success of the pollinator species. These partnerships may be unique and specialized --- each species providing a specific function --- or are they may be generalized and interchangeable with multiple species providing the same general functions. If all partnerships are functionally interchangeable, then if communities are disturbed or change, new partnerships may arise that will continue to be mutually beneficial. In contrast, if partnerships are unique and specialized, and communities are disturbed, the new partnerships that arise may no longer be mutually beneficial. Because these mutualistic partnerships are essential for ecosystem function and the maintenance of populations, understanding why species interact in the way they do is a central question in ecology.
With a grant from the National Science Foundation, will investigate how specific interaction patterns (unique and specialized vs. interchangeable and generalized) contribute to both short-term plant and pollinator reproduction and long-term population persistence. We focus on the plants and pollinators of the Madrean sky islands, a unique ‘archipelago’ of mountains surrounded by ‘seas’ of desert. The study will inform conservation efforts by elucidating key mechanisms that sustain mutualistic species interactions in the face of change and potential biodiversity loss. This research is in collaboration with Shalene Jha (UT Austin) and Terry Griswold (USDA Logan Bee Lab).
With a grant from the National Science Foundation, will investigate how specific interaction patterns (unique and specialized vs. interchangeable and generalized) contribute to both short-term plant and pollinator reproduction and long-term population persistence. We focus on the plants and pollinators of the Madrean sky islands, a unique ‘archipelago’ of mountains surrounded by ‘seas’ of desert. The study will inform conservation efforts by elucidating key mechanisms that sustain mutualistic species interactions in the face of change and potential biodiversity loss. This research is in collaboration with Shalene Jha (UT Austin) and Terry Griswold (USDA Logan Bee Lab).
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