Plant–animal interactions
Thursday 9 June 2022 – 15:00 BST (UTC +1)
Hosted by New Phytologist Advisor, Christelle Robert, University of Bern
Featuring
- Rocío Escobar-Bravo, author of Leafminer attack accelerates the development of soil-dwelling conspecific pupae via plant-mediated changes in belowground volatiles
- Quint Rusman, author of Flowers prepare thyselves: Leaf and root herbivores induce specific changes in floral phytochemistry with consequences for plant interactions with florivores
- Camila Souza, author of Plant-centred sampling estimates higher beta diversity of interactions than pollinator-based sampling across habitats
This event was recorded and can be watched on-demand at the New Phytologist Now Cassyni webinar page.
About the speakers:
Rocío Escobar-Bravo, Postdoctoral Guest Researcher, Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern
Rocío Escobar-Bravo is a chemical and molecular plant ecologist. She obtained her PhD in 2013 at the Institute for Mediterranean and Subtropical Horticulture "La Mayora" in Málaga, Spain. Between 2014 and 2022, she has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Prof. Peter Klinkhamer’s lab, at the Institute of Biology of Leiden (The Netherlands), and later at Prof. Matthias Erb’s lab, at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the University of Bern (Switzerland). Her research revolves around how light and volatile cues modulate plant defense responses to herbivorous enemies and how herbivore-induced plant responses affect herbivore performance and survival.
Quint Rusman, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Zürich
Quint Rusman’s research focuses on the importance of biotic interactions for the ecology and evolution of communities. During his PhD, he especially focussed on indirect herbivore – flower-visitor interactions and their contribution to the evolution of plant defence and reproduction. In his current postdoc, he focuses on experimental coevolution between a plant and its pollinating herbivore in environments varying in abiotic and biotic factors. He is also very much interested in insect and plant diversity, and in his free time likes to go hunt for special plants, mostly orchids, and insects, mostly bees.
Camila Souza, Collaborating professor and postdoctoral researcher, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros - UNIMONTES
Camila Souza is currently a collaborating professor and postdoctoral researcher in the Postgraduate Program in Applied Botany at the State University of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. She works with mutualistic interactions, understanding patterns and processes of these interactions mainly in tropical communities. She mainly researches plants and their pollinators and how these interactions can vary in time and space. Currently she is studying multilayer interactions networks to understand temporal layers connections (diurnal and nocturnal interactions and dry and wet seasons) and behavioural layers of floral visitors and their structuring processes.