Collaborative research: SGER: Post-fire Recovery of a Plant-pollinator Mutualism

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This Collaborative SGER project would begin the immediate study of a plant/pollinator mutualism that, most likely, has been disrupted by the 2003 wildfires in southern California. The study system includes the yucca Hesperoyucca whipplei and yucca moth Tegeticula maculata, which are mutualists, which have been exceptionally well studied in undisturbed conditions throughout California over the last several years. Under this project, one of the PIs (Udovic) would continue investigating this interaction at two sites near San Diego, the Elliot Chaparral Reserve and the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. In late October 2003, some significant portions of his study sites burned while others escaped damage. The immediate and longer-term post-fire study of this system would take advantage of comparative data from the same site before the fire, and from a similar but unburned site over the same time period. One goal is to delineate fire impacts on mutualist population sizes, mutualist phenologies, and the consequent likelihood that the partners will locate each other and reproduce successfully in the coming seasons. The broader applications of the project include outreach on fire prevention, management and response. This work will provide research opportunities to two undergraduate students (one from University of Oregon and one from University of Arizona).