E-mail: udovic@uoregon.edu
Tel: (541)-346-5092
Fax: (541)-346-2364
Office: 301 B Pacific
Hall
Address:
Center
for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
5289 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-5289
I am currently on assignment as Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) at the National Science Foundation in Arlington Virginia.
**Prospective students: Please note that I am no longer taking on graduate students.**
An important area of research in evolutionary ecology is to decipher the detailed manner in which interacting populations influence each other’s fitness (and consequently their evolutionary trajectories). My lab focuses on plant-pollinator mutualisms (interactions in which individuals in both populations potentially benefit), and multiple-species interactions in which some of the pair-wise interactions are mutualistic.
Our current research focuses on Hesperoyucca whipplei (formerly Yucca whipplei) and its highly specialized floral associates. The sole pollinator is the specialist yucca moth, Tegeticula maculata, which also acts as a seed predator. Anthoneus agavensis, a sap beetle whose larvae destroy developing flower buds, is another specialist. In addition, there are several other species (beetles and moths that are also fairly specialized) that act as seed predators. A long-term goal of our lab is to develop a framework for understanding how these species influence each other’s population dynamics and evolution.
In
collaboration with Judith Bronstein (University of Arizona), I am
also studying the response of Hesperoyucca
whipplei and
its pollinator Tegeticula maculata to fire. These
studies take advantage of recent fires in southern California
in the fall of 2003
that burned one of our long-term field sites.
Comparing
flowering and pollination data pre-and post-burn and with data from
an unburned site is providing insights into
the sensitivity, resilience and re-establishment of a highly specialized
obligate mutualism after
a major disturbance.