A Web of Evolving Interactions - A Lecture by Jon Haloin
The McLaughlin Reserve April science lecture: A web of evolving interactions: plants, the bugs that eat them, the spiders that eat the bugs, and what plants do about all of this.
Presented by Jon Haloin, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Davis
1:00–2:30 pm lecture & discussion,
2:30-4:00 mini-field trip (optional. If you wish to participate, wear sturdy footwear, sun hat, and bring drinking water.)
How many of us have been annoyed by insects that eat our favorite plants? Some of us may even encourage predatory insects, like ladybugs or spiders that catch the herbivorous insects under the assumption that they might protect the plants. But what many of us might not realize is that the plants are actively involved in this web of interactions.
Plants can respond to the insects that harm them by producing distasteful or toxic chemicals, growing long hairs, producing more leaves, or in a myriad of other ways. Investing in these of defenses might use up energy and resources plants could otherwise use to produce more seeds. So, how plants can best respond to herbivory may depend on what the predators of herbivores are doing. These complex interactions among plants, herbivores, and predators can affect both the reproductive success and the evolutionary trajectory of plants, but they are not particularly clear or simple to study.
This ecological puzzle is the focus of research for Jon Haloin, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis. Initially spurred by a fondness for insects, Jon has traveled down the path of studying the complex interactions of the plants and insects that use each other as they attempt to have productive lives. Join us as Jon illuminates the world of plant-insect interactions and discusses his own research, and how the results of this research shed light on the complexities of these ecological webs. Following the lecture, Jon will lead a short field trip to one of his research sites, where we can continue discussions about his studies.
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UPCOMING EVENTS APRIL-JULY: see the McLaughlin website http://nrs.ucdavis.edu/mclaughlin.html for more information.
Presented by Jon Haloin, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Davis
1:00–2:30 pm lecture & discussion,
2:30-4:00 mini-field trip (optional. If you wish to participate, wear sturdy footwear, sun hat, and bring drinking water.)
How many of us have been annoyed by insects that eat our favorite plants? Some of us may even encourage predatory insects, like ladybugs or spiders that catch the herbivorous insects under the assumption that they might protect the plants. But what many of us might not realize is that the plants are actively involved in this web of interactions.
Plants can respond to the insects that harm them by producing distasteful or toxic chemicals, growing long hairs, producing more leaves, or in a myriad of other ways. Investing in these of defenses might use up energy and resources plants could otherwise use to produce more seeds. So, how plants can best respond to herbivory may depend on what the predators of herbivores are doing. These complex interactions among plants, herbivores, and predators can affect both the reproductive success and the evolutionary trajectory of plants, but they are not particularly clear or simple to study.
This ecological puzzle is the focus of research for Jon Haloin, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis. Initially spurred by a fondness for insects, Jon has traveled down the path of studying the complex interactions of the plants and insects that use each other as they attempt to have productive lives. Join us as Jon illuminates the world of plant-insect interactions and discusses his own research, and how the results of this research shed light on the complexities of these ecological webs. Following the lecture, Jon will lead a short field trip to one of his research sites, where we can continue discussions about his studies.
***********************************************
UPCOMING EVENTS APRIL-JULY: see the McLaughlin website http://nrs.ucdavis.edu/mclaughlin.html for more information.