Geographic Structure of Coevolving Insect/Plant Interactions

这个项目将研究共同进化如何在广阔的地理景观中塑造昆虫和植物之间的相互作用。目前生态学研究中的一个主要挑战是了解当相互作用的物种在不同的群落(共同进化热点)经历不同的选择压力时，正在进行的共同进化如何进行。生态、地理和系统发育的综合证据使我们有机会利用灰飞蛾与其寄主植物之间的相互作用来解决共同进化过程中的这些核心问题。飞蛾是当地寄主特有的授粉种子寄生虫，在北美西部的广泛生境中，飞蛾与寄主植物之间的相互作用发生。这项研究将涉及三个目标。第一个目标是确定不同社区之间的结果差异是否随着时间的推移而稳定，第二个目标是评估不同社区人口之间的基因流动是否导致结果的地理模式。第三个目标是评估在以前的工作中确定的互惠和对立热点之间的相互作用的差异如何有助于不同的生态结果。这三个目标的结果加在一起，将有助于共同进化理论和生物多样性组织的发展。他们将讨论选择马赛克和共同进化热点如何在不同的生态条件下塑造跨地理景观的物种互动。总体而言，这些结果将有助于我们理解物种间相互作用的地理尺度和多样性，以及共同进化如何将群落间的类群联系起来。

0073911ThompsonThis project will investigate how coevolution shapes the interactions between insects and plants across broad geographic landscapes. A major current challenge in ecological research is to understand how ongoing coevolution proceeds as interacting species experience different selection pressures in different communities (co-evolutionary hotspots). The combined ecological, geographic, and phylogenetic evidence allows the opportunity to use the interactions between the moth Greya politella and its host plants to address these central questions on co-evolutionary processes. The moths are locally host specific pollinating seed parasites, and the interaction between the moths and their host plants occurs across a wide range of habitats in western North America. Three objectives will be addressed in this study. The first objective is to determine whether the differences in outcome among communities are stable over time, and the second objective will assess whether the geographic patterns in outcome result from gene flow among populations in different communities. The third objective will be to evaluate how the differences in the interaction between the mutualistic and antagonistic hotspots identified during previous work contribute to the different ecological outcomes. Together, the results of these three objectives will aid in the development of the theory of coevolution and the organization of biodiversity. They will address how selection mosaics and co-evolutionary hotspots shape species interactions across geographic landscapes under different ecological conditions. Overall, the results will therefore contribute to our understanding of the geographic scale at which interspecific interactions diversity and the ways in which coevolution links taxa among communities.