Research Themes and Questions
As a young professor at the University of South Carolina, my research program focused on floral scent as a channel of communication that had been neglected in the study of pollination ecology. I was interested in all aspects of floral scent as a natural phenomenon, from genetic control and biosynthesis to diel rhythms in emission, the olfactory and behavioral responses of pollinators, and the phylogenetic distribution and constraints on the evolution of scent as
a dimension of floral phenotype. [Right, studying nectar volatiles in sky pilots (Polemonium viscosum) with Evan Hilpman, Rainee Kaczorowski, Alicia Michels & Candi Galen, Penn Mt., CO, 2007).
As a young professor at the University of South Carolina, my research program focused on floral scent as a channel of communication that had been neglected in the study of pollination ecology. I was interested in all aspects of floral scent as a natural phenomenon, from genetic control and biosynthesis to diel rhythms in emission, the olfactory and behavioral responses of pollinators, and the phylogenetic distribution and constraints on the evolution of scent as
a dimension of floral phenotype. [Right, studying nectar volatiles in sky pilots (Polemonium viscosum) with Evan Hilpman, Rainee Kaczorowski, Alicia Michels & Candi Galen, Penn Mt., CO, 2007).
Given the strong visual bias of the pollination field, my students and I designed experiments to directly test the potential for multi-modal interactions between olfaction, vision and other sensory channels. I wrote several reviews, organized symposia and edited special features to promote this nascent field and to encourage its integration into the mainstream of pollination research. Accordingly, I trained many students and colleagues from around the world in my lab and in workshops, hoping to build capacity in the techniques needed to study floral scent and pollinator behavior.
[Left, training Sandy-Lynn Steenhuisen in volatile collection from Protea rupellii, Drakensberg Mts., South Africa, as a US Fulbright Fellow, Dec. 2006]
YouTube talks about Floral Scent
Canada Blooms, March 20, 2009
Annals of Botany Plenary lecture, July 29, 2015
Cornell Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics, March 21, 2016
Cornell Dept. of Plant Biology, September 14, 2018
[Left, training Sandy-Lynn Steenhuisen in volatile collection from Protea rupellii, Drakensberg Mts., South Africa, as a US Fulbright Fellow, Dec. 2006]
YouTube talks about Floral Scent
Canada Blooms, March 20, 2009
Annals of Botany Plenary lecture, July 29, 2015
Cornell Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics, March 21, 2016
Cornell Dept. of Plant Biology, September 14, 2018
When I moved to the Dept. of Neurobiology and Behavior (NBB) at Cornell in 2007, not only did I meet several of the founders of Chemical Ecology (Tom Eisner, Wendell Roelofs, Paul Feeney), I joined a department full of scientific pioneers whose research I had taught (and admired) in my Animal Behavior and Sensory Ecology courses at USC. Through osmosis, I began to reframe my research questions more broadly in the parlance of Animal Communication, invoking concepts more familiar to those who study Behavioral Ecology.
[Above, Fall Semester 2009 teaching cadre for BioNB 2210 - Introduction to Animal Behavior at Cornell: (L to R) Kern Reeve, Robert Raguso, Tom Seeley, Janet Shellman-Sherman, Mike Webster, Paul Sherman, Walt Koenig, Kerry Shaw and Charlie Walcott]
- How does one distinguish between Signals and Cues?
- How do signals evolve, and when are they constrained to be Honest?
- How do Dishonest signals evolve, and to what extent are third parties involved?
- How do signals vary geographically, and what are the driving selective forces?
- Do highly specialized interactions require private channels of communication?
- To what extent do signals structure interaction networks at the community level?
Click on any of the links above to find out what we have learned!
[Above, Fall Semester 2009 teaching cadre for BioNB 2210 - Introduction to Animal Behavior at Cornell: (L to R) Kern Reeve, Robert Raguso, Tom Seeley, Janet Shellman-Sherman, Mike Webster, Paul Sherman, Walt Koenig, Kerry Shaw and Charlie Walcott]
- How does one distinguish between Signals and Cues?
- How do signals evolve, and when are they constrained to be Honest?
- How do Dishonest signals evolve, and to what extent are third parties involved?
- How do signals vary geographically, and what are the driving selective forces?
- Do highly specialized interactions require private channels of communication?
- To what extent do signals structure interaction networks at the community level?
Click on any of the links above to find out what we have learned!