U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Responses of the Fig- Pollinator Mutualism to Environmental Constraints

这个为期三年的奖项支持美国-法国合作研究 在生态学上的分歧是道尔B。麦基，迈阿密大学，和 芬恩·克兰伯格，生态与进化中心 生态学，蒙彼利埃，法国 目的是研究 昆虫与植物共同进化的经典案例之一： 无花果和授粉黄蜂为了使无花果/黄蜂的互利共生持续下去， 传粉黄蜂需要开花的树木全年在热带 环境.研究人员在研究无花果和黄蜂的共生关系时， 潜在的不稳定的季节性环境， 北方，亚热带气候发现在佛罗里达和地中海 法国 他们将进行平行实验， 黄蜂对物候、单个无花果的感受性和 黄蜂的行为和化学吸引无花果。 合作安排使调查人员能够汇集 互补的专业知识，并取得可比的结果。 两 迈阿密和蒙彼利埃是理想的地点，调查 无花果/黄蜂互惠共生对季节限制的响应 因为无花果/黄蜂互惠共生是研究许多 关于共同进化的问题，这项研究的结果将 为共同进化研究做出了重大贡献。

This three-year award supports U.S.-France cooperative research in ecology between Doyle B. McKey, University of Miami, and Finn Kjellberg, at the Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Ecology, Montpellier, France. The objective is to study interactions in one of the classic cases of insect-plant coevolution: figs and pollinating wasps. For fig/wasp mutualism to persist, the pollinator wasps require flowering trees year-round as in tropical environments. The investigators address fig/wasp mutualism in potentially destabilizing seasonal environments as in more northern, subtropical climes found in Florida and mediterranean France. They will conduct parallel experiments to characterize wasp response to phenology, receptivity of individual figs and wasp behavior and chemical attraction to figs. The collaborative arrangements enable the investigators to pool complementary expertise and obtain comparable results. Both Miami and Montpellier are ideal locations to investigate the responses of fig/wasp mutualism to seasonal constraints. Because fig/wasp mutualism is a model system for studying many questions about co-evolution, the results from this study will make a major contribution to co-evolutionary studies in general.