Caralyn Zehnder
 
Ph.D. Ecology Graduation: 2007

zehnder@arches.uga.edu

Maternal effects, the non-genetic influence of the mother's phenotype and environment on her offspring, fascinate me. Additionally, I am interested in how maternal effects can impact animal-plant interactions and population dynamics. More specifically, I am interested in how aspects of the maternal environment, for example plant quality, host quality, maternal density and age, influence offspring life history traits such as survival, fecundity, growth, and dispersal ability, with an ultimate interest in describing how changes in these traits can affect population dynamics. The system I study involves a producer (milkweed: Asclepias sp.), a herbivore (the oleander aphid: Aphis nerii) and its parasitoid (a wasp:
Lysiphlebus testaceipes).  I plan on examining how differences between producers, (the different milkweed species have differing levels of cardenolid) affect the aphids feeding on them and then how this influences the wasps parasitizing the aphids. All of this will be done from the perspective of maternal effects, meaning that I will investigate how differences in the maternal environment influence offspring.

For a simplified version of Caralyn's research, please click here.

Home