Plant-Pollinator Networks

Networks of mutualistic interactions between plants and pollinating animals are one of the most important forces for generating and maintaining terrestrial biodiversity. These networks, however, are threatened by global pollinator declines and local extinctions of plant species and biotic invasions, making it critically important to understand the mechanisms that drive network stability. We aim to understand and predict the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms behind the structure and dynamics of plant-pollinator networks

Adaptive Foraging

The widely observed preference of consumers for more-available resources, adaptive foraging, has been documented to stabilize the dynamics of complex food webs

Population Dynamics Model

Our model described in Valdovinos et al. (2013) includes the trophic dimension of mutualistic interactions by explicitly modeling the dynamics of floral reward resources and adaptive foraging.

Species Invasions

We evaluate what factors drive species invasion success and the consequences to the structure and dynamics of plant-pollinator networks. 

Community Assembly

Understanding the mechanisms dictating the dynamics of plant-pollinator systems requires untangling how interactions affect the assembly process.

Mutualism Theory

We are developing theory on the population dynamics of mutualistic relationships to build a generalized theory for these interactions.

Phenology

We are studying how certain phenological qualities shape the realized structure and function of plant-pollinator networks