Guest speaker, Michele Dudash from south Dakota State Universit, will discuss topics about their research: Plant mating system evolution, plant-insect interactions, demography of populations and the role of inbreeding in the evolution of plant populations.
Abstract:
I was formally trained as a plant population biologist under the direction of Dr. Stephen G. Weller at U of Illinois at Chicago (currently at UC Irvine). I saw the “light” my first semester as a graduate student when I learned how fascinating plant reproductive biology was in terms of its complexity and breadth of variation in breeding and mating systems. Here, I will overview some of my research group’s major contributions to our understanding of plant mating system evolution, plant-pollinator interactions, plant-herbivore interaction outcomes, and the application of my research to the conservation arena.