EEB Thursday Seminar Series - Phytochemical diversity regulates resiliency to herbivory and environmental stressors

Seminar Summary - Plants exist in a complex chemical world, producing diverse blends of metabolites that shape interactions with herbivores, microbes, and the broader ecological community. My research program integrates chemical ecology, metabolomics, and community ecology to understand how phytochemical diversity—both within and among plant species—governs ecological stability across natural and managed ecosystems. Using Phragmites australis in threatened U.S. wetlands and solanaceous crops such as tomato and potato in agricultural systems, my work examines how phytochemical diversity and variation mediate competition, defense, and mutualisms across multiple trophic levels.
Across wetlands, I investigate how native and invasive lineages of P. australis differ in chemical trait expression, how environmental stress gradients shape metabolic plasticity, and how these differences influence competitive outcomes and invasion dynamics. In agricultural systems, I test how terpene complexity alters herbivore and natural enemy behavior, revealing general principles of how insects interpret multicomponent odor cues. Together, these approaches demonstrate how chemical diversity structures ecological networks, affects biocontrol efficacy, and shapes ecosystem resilience.
By linking mechanistic plant chemistry with ecological processes, my research provides a trait-based framework for predicting species coexistence, improving ecosystem management, and designing sustainable, chemically informed strategies for conservation and agriculture.