Currently, I am an NSF-PRFB postdoc in Marjorie Weber's lab at Michigan State University. I mainly study evolutionary patterns of sand-entrapment in plants and the consequences for herbivorous insects, but Marj and I have some other cool projects in the pipeline as well (polination! dispersal! floral volatiles!).   

I did my dissertation with Rick Karban at UC-Davis and previously worked with Doug Morse, Christine Janis, and Beth Brainerd at Brown University during and after my undergraduate years there.

I am generally interested in natural history and use that as my primary tool in examining ecological interactions and evolutionary patterns in various plant-insect interactions (herbivory, protective mutualisms, and pollination). I spend a lot of time just poking around, taking pictures, making observations, and collecting plants and seeds; most of my projects have come from these jaunts. 

My CV is here.

Twitter: @Saab95adventure

Huge post-fireTrichostema laxum!!!

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Direct and indirect defense of sticky plants and its evolution
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My primary research concerns sticky plants.

A great diversity of plants have independently evolved stickiness, which may be a direct and indirect defense. Entrapped insects die and this carrion provides predators with a food source; these same predators reduce the herbivore load on a plant by consumption or interference. Sticky plants in California are marked by a very consistent predator community, which are ecologically not phylogenetically host specific. The interactions between these predators, as well as between predators and herbivores, have interesting and important effects on the plant. 

Additionally, a subset of sticky plants are 'psammophorous' ('sand-carrying') and are naturally coated in a layer of substrate, generally sand. We've found that this covering - entrapped by the same sticky trichomes as insects are - protects the plant against herbivory, but it doesn't seem to be a camouflage, as might be expected. Instead, it acts directly by wearing down mouthparts and slowing growth of the herbivores. 

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