Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve

11 May, 06 AM - 11 May, 09 AM

The Big Creek Reserve will be used only for Objective 3, the phylogeographic analysis of these four species. I will collect leaf tissue for DNA sequencing from the populations of L. heterophyllum that are located on the reserve. Abstract: A current challenge in coevolutionary biology and community ecology is to understand how networks of interacting species evolve in different ways in different environments. The importance of this challenge is increasing, as the species composition of many ecosystems is rapidly changing worldwide. We need to understand the extent to which the interactions between networks of species can change under different ecological conditions and how those changes may be structured genetically by the phylogenetic history of lineages. This work evaluates how networks of interacting plants and insects differ in structure across geographic landscapes as populations evolve and diverge. The work focuses on the specific problem of how a four-species network of two closely-related plant species and two closely-related moth species differ genetically and ecologically in four environments in California. Objective 1 evaluates how the moths Greya politella and G. obscura (Prodoxidae) differ along the Coast Ranges of California in their use of the woodland stars, Lithophragma parviflorum and L. heterophyllum (Saxifragaceae). Objective 2 evaluates whether differences among habitats in how moths use these two plant species are determined genetically or by local ecological conditions. Objective 3 uses molecular markers to assess whether similarity in network structure among some habitats results from the shared phylogenetic history of those populations.

Visit #10052 @Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 6771 | Research

Ecology of a multispecific interaction network

graduate_student - University of California, Santa Cruz

Reservation Members(s)

Katherine Horjus May 11, 2006 (1 days)

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