We are looking for an enthusiastic student interested in pollination and floral evolution to explore how new pollinator environments on different continents can generate floral evolutionary innovation. The project will use several plant species that can be studied in their native and new ranges, and combine field work in South and Central America and/or southern Europe, molecular work and greenhouse studies to understand how plants deal with changes in their pollinators.

Much of the evolution of flowers is potentially explained by long periods of stasis interspersed by occasional episodes when plants are exposed to new pollinators and rapid floral innovation is favoured. This may happen when plants invade new regions or when the pollinator community in their native range is altered. This project will study how and to what extent rapid evolution of floral traits comes about. This question is relevant to understand plant evolution but also in the context of the current declines of many pollinators around the world, because it will assess how plants can cope with changed pollinator environments.

The student will use several plant species that have extended their ranges and are exposed to different pollinators in their new habitats. It will include a) a field component designed to compare the pollinators, phenotypes and natural selection estimates in native and invasive populations; b) a greenhouse component designed to establish the role of phenotypic plasticity in floral variation; and c) a molecular component designed to study the phylogeography of the focus plants to understand patterns of floral variation. The focal study plants will be Digitalis purpurea, Nicotiana glauca, and possibly Fuchsia magellanica. There is variable amount of preliminary information for these species, so the student will help establish new study systems but also benefit from ongoing collaborations, e.g. with Jeff Ollerton (U of Northampton). Field work will involve trips to different parts of the world (UK, South America and Mediterranean Europe); a driving licence and availability and interest in working in the UK and abroad are essential.