Research Summary

I am interested in interactions between species: the behaviors that mediate them and the impacts of the interaction on both parties. My students and I study the interactions between insect herbivores, their host plants, and their natural enemies. There are several intensive ongoing outbreaks of leaf mining insects in the boreal forest, and work in my lab has focused on two of these: the aspen leaf miner Phyllocnistis populiella and the willow leaf blotch miner Micrurapteryx salicifoliella

Work in my lab focuses on the evolutionary ecology of insect-plant interactions. Current research projects include:

• Impact of outbreak insects on the growth and physiology of aspen and willow

• Population biology of outbreak leaf miners

• Invasion biology of Vicia cracca in interior Alaska

• Causes and consequences of extrafloral nectar secretion by aspen