Geographic Mosaics in Diversifying Plant-Insect Interactions

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

Work on this award will evaluate how the process of coevolution shapes interactions between insects and plants over large geographic scales. Many interactions between plants and their herbivores and pollinators occur across multiple ecoregions. These interactions evolve in different ways in different regions, but they are connected by movement of individuals among populations. The purpose of this award is to understand how the large-scale structure of these interactions develops amid this geographic mosaic of coevolution. The results will contribute to our understanding of how biodiversity is organized over large geographic scales, and how interactions between species may persist in a constantly changing world. The results will therefore contribute to our understanding of how best to conserve the earth's biodiversity through efforts at regional and continental scales. The research will use the moth Greya politella and its major hostplant Lithophragma parviflorum. These species range from the U.S. Rockies to coastal California. This is one of the most widely-distributed interactions between plants and insects in western North America. The traits of the species, the ecological outcomes of the interaction between them, and the genetic structure of the populations are already known from past work to vary regionally. The species can also be easily manipulated in the field, laboratory, and greenhouse. This interaction therefore provides a useful model for analyses of the geographic mosaic of coevolution.