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I am interested in the ecology and evolution of plants. My research focuses on the interplay between growth form (size, architecture, patterns of allocation), life history (the schedule of growth, reproduction, and death), and adaptation. Members of my research group use a combination of experimental and comparative techniques to examine how the evolution of growth form and/or life histories are associated the evolution of plant strategies across environments.

 

I have also recently been involved with studies on the evolution of geographic range size, habitat fragmentation, systematics and diversity of endemic Australian plants, the ecology of fire disturbed communities, and the ecology and marine invertebrate communities.

 

Current members of the Bonser Lab:

 

 

Life history and growth form control when and how a plant allocates resources to growth and reproduction. Much of my past research focussed on how growth form variability was associated with plant strategies across environmental gradients both within and between species. More recently, we are examining how patterns of phenotypic integration constrain and promote evolutionary responses to changing environments. Much of this research is done with controlled experiments on model organisms. However, we are now investigating these questions across broad environmental gradients here in Australia, and with collaborators in Argentina.

 

 

 

Interactions between plants and their insect herbivores is a key factor promoting the evolution of diversity of both plants and insects. I am currently developing a research project with Tom Chapman (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada) where we will investigate complex interactions between arid zone Acacias, gall forming thrips, and gall parasites. Balancing selection pressures of plant defense and parasite attack should be fundamental in shaping herbivore life histories and feeding behaviour. In turn, selection from herbivores should also control plant defense and tolerance responses. We will use this model system to develop a general understanding of plant insect interactions, and the conditions promoting the evolution of sociality in insects.

 

 

 

Most aspects of plant form and function are governed by size-dependent (allometric) relationships. In modular organisms such as plants, individual size is correlated with environmental condition. Thus, plant size is critical in interpreting any adaptive value of variability in plant functional traits across environments. Current research projects are investigating how life history evolution in the size at reproduction can produce size-dependent reproduction at the end of plant's life. Our results challenge commonly held beliefs on the functional or adaptive significance of reproductive allometry commonly observed in plant populations.

 

Size also plays a critical role in structuring communities. Since resource use is often size dependent across individuals, size distributions will affect both the number and diversity of coexisting individuals within communities. We are investigating size-dependent community structure in both terrestrial woodlands, and marine sessile invertebrate communities.

 

 

 

A key goal in ecology is to understand how competitive interactions regulate populations and control community structure. Unfortunately, a general understanding of how competitive interactions change across species and across environments has remained elusive. We are currently investigating the evolution of competitive ability in plants. Through incorporating advances in the evolution of plant functional traits involved in resource acquisition we are quantifying how plants compete for limited resources and how the evolution of competitive ability is related to the evolution of traits that allow plants to persist in impoverished or stressful habitats.