Author: lou7ee3

Tom led a paper looking at the evolutionary genetic consequences of invasion in leafy spurge over a 130 year chronosequence - published in Evolutionary Applications (early online)

Brooke's paper on pollen dispersal was recently published in the American Journal of Botany and was featured as an Editor's Choice. She tracked pollen movement using quantum dots in 11 populations of Clarkia xantiana and found longer-distance dispersal than expected and surprising consistency across populations.

Tom Lake breezed through his Ph.D. defense on Thursday. His dissertation is titled, "Improving predictions of biological invasions with multidisciplinary approaches". His work focused primarily on leafy spurge, Euphorbia virgata, considered the most costly invasive plant in North America.

John Benning et al.'s paper published in Proceedings B dissects the genetic and demographic factors that permit or prevent rapid evolution during strong climate perturbations. These findings help explain why most studies of rapid evolution find that only a subset of populations rapidly evolve.

Ryan and Dave received a 3-year grant from USDA-NIFA to develop models to detect and monitor the population dynamics of leafy spurge using satellite imagery across the northern Great Plains. Leafy spurge is a widespread invader of cool-arid grasslands where it displaces natives and is toxic to grazing livestock.

Ryan and Dave received a new 4-year grant from the State of Minnesota (via MITPPC and LCCMR) to examine adaptation to climate change and its influence on future range expansion in common tansy, an invasive species. Common tansy is particularly problematic in open habitats of northern Minnesota where it has increased dramatically in abundance over … Continue reading New grant funded by MITPPC/LCCMR for invasion research

Shelley and Yaniv Brandvain developed forward evolutionary simulation models (using SLiM) to examine the evolution of genetic load in relation to mating system variation. This was a massive effort to improve upon our understanding of how processes interact to determine how mating system transitions affect the efficacy of selection. Sianta, S.A., S. Peischl, D.A. Moeller, … Continue reading Shelley’s paper on the evolution of genetic load in relation to mating system published in Evolution

Tom developed deep learning models that detect the invasive plant, leafy spurge, from publicly-available satellite images. This fine-scale level of detection opens new doors for tracking population dynamics through time and developing better distribution models. The paper was highlighted in local TV news (KARE11) and other science news outlets (AAAS, Phys.org, Biotechniques, etc).

As an undergraduate at UMN, Adam conducted a greenhouse experiment to examine whether parallel adaptation has occurred in response to urban environments of St. Louis, MO and Minneapolis-St. Paul. He also tested whether phenotypic variance is greater among urban than rural populations due to the high heterogeneity of environments and management practices in urban areas. … Continue reading Undergraduate Adam Kostanecki’s paper on urban adaptation in ragweed published in J. of Urban Ecology

One of John's dissertation projects examined the role of plant-microbe interactions in modulating fitness within versus beyond the range margin of Clarkia xantiana ssp. xantiana. He used a field transplant experiment, involving soil transplants as well, a greenhouse experiment, and microbiome characterization of roots and rhizosphere. His results suggest that there is mutualist limitation and … Continue reading John Benning’s paper on microbes and range limits published in New Phytologist