Population ecology of plant interactions

Our research is focused on how plants reproduce and survive in a rapidly changing world. We use a combination of field, laboratory, and computational approaches to test how individual plant fitness and their distributions are influenced by their key mutualists - fungi and animal pollinators. The overall goal of our research is to help predict how plants and their mutualists respond to ongoing environmental change.

We are based at the Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Monte Sant'Angelo Campus. 

Opportunities

There are often positions for motivated BSc and MSc students to work in the lab on fungi and understanding how they interact with plants. If you are interested to find out more about our research, please feel free to check out our published papers, or send an email to karljoseph.duffy [at] unina. it

Recent lab papers

• Geographical gradients and ecological factors determine the orchid mycorrhizal fungal communities associated with the Mediterranean orchid Orchis italica. From Marco Balducci's PhD thesis, published in Journal of Biogeography.

• Cross pollination increases both seed quality and germination success across a range of European orchid species with Jacopo Calevo and Miriam Bazzicalupo. Published in Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 

• How the Mediterranean orchid Orchis italica relies on few strains of mycorrhizal fungi (Tulasnella) to germinate and how there may be local adaptation to particular mycorrhizas. Published in Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society - from Marco Balducci's PhD thesis.

• A commentary on the difficulty in detecting adaptation to environmental conditions in Scots pine published in New Phytologist.

• The influence of conspecific and heterospecific co-flowering plants on pollination and fecundity of the rewardless orchid Dactylorhiza sambucina published in Plant Ecology and Diversity.

• How orchid mycorrhizal fungi interact to enhance the early development of the orchid Anacamptis papilionacea published in Mycorrhiza which is fully open access.

• A collaborative European study on the historical biogeography of the widespread orchid Epipactis helleborine published in Annals of Botany. 

• How intraspecific density increases pollination and fruit set in the orchid Gymnadenia conopsea published in Flora.

Funding

The lab is very grateful to various funding agencies in recent years:

• Compagnia San Paolo and University of Naples Federico II Junior Starting Investigator grant - Programma STAR.

• Italian Ministry of Research project of national interest (PRIN) in collaboration with Mariangela Girlanda (University of Torino) and Giuseppe Pellegrino (University of Reggio-Calabria).