Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2016-2017

Ph.D Candidate, Department of Bioagricultural Science and Pest Management

Research Summary: In today’s world of rapid global change, plants are constantly on the move. When plants are brought to new places, they also often interact with new species, especially insects. However, whether, and if so how, plants can adapt to sudden shifts in insect communities remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, I use an introduced plant to ask how changes in communities of plant-eating insects and insect pollinators shape a plant’s ecology and evolution. This research is important because it informs sustainable management of the food plants we care about, as well as the weeds we want to protect against.