Congratulations to Tadeo and Isaac on the publication of a new Ecography paper, validating the use of herbarium specimens to measure the phenological sensitivity of flowering time to climate.

Herbarium specimens provide reliable estimates of phenological responses to climate at unparalleled taxonomic and spatiotemporal scales

Another Streptanthus paper hits the press!  Congratulations, Natalie Love for shepherding another herbarium-based study of the effects of climatic variation -- and climate change -- on the flowering phenology of an iconic California species, Streptanthus tortuosus.  Check it out at:  this link

Congratulations to Natalie!  Natalie R. Love defended her PhD thesis on December 11, 2020 to an international Zoom seminar with 80 attendees! Title and abstract below:

Ecological and evolutionary causes of geographic variation in reproductive phenology and seed mass in the California jewelflowers (Streptanthus, Brassicaceae)

Sex-specific floral attraction traits in a sequentially hermaphroditic species

Ecology and Evolution: DOI: 10.1002/ece3.5987

Abstract

● Many angiosperms are hermaphroditic and produce bisexual flowers in which male

(pollen export) and female (stigma receptivity) functions are separated temporally.

This sequential hermaphroditism may be associated with variation in flower size,

color, or pattern, all of which may influence pollinator attraction. In this study, we

We've just returned from the 2019 Graduate Student Symposium of the California Botanical Society, held at California State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), where Natalie Love and Kris Peach delivered super-engaging talks about their dissertation research. 

Kris Peach reported the results just published in the American Journal of Botany:

Peach, K., and S. J. Mazer. 2019. Heteranthery in Clarkia: pollen performance of dimorphic anthers contradicts expectations. American Journal of Botany 106(4): 1–6.

Kristen Peach was awarded joint grants from UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology and from Giga Science to attend a summer 2018 workshop in Front Royal, Virginia.  The 10-day workshop (August 19-30), "Recent Advances in Conservation Genetics", will cover methods, interpretation, and applications of molecular genetic analyses for the conservation of endangered species.  Congratulations, Kris!

Dr. Larios (PhD, University of Arizona) has been awarded a UC MEXUS postdoctoral fellowship to investigate selection on seed mass in Dithyrea californica in the Mazer lab.  His research project is titled: Evolution in a heterogeneous environment: direct and cross-generational environmental effects on seed size, plant fitness, and natural selection on seed size