PLANT ECOLOGY
AND EVOLUTION AT UC IRVINE
The Plant Ecology and Evolution Group includes faculty
from several departments with a research focus incorporating plant biology.
Research interests are varied and include:
• Plant
genomics and evolution (Gaut, Clegg, Mulligan)
• Plant ecological genetics (Campbell, Sakai, Weis, Weller)
• Evolution of plant breeding systems (Campbell, Sakai, Weller)
• Plant-pollinator interactions and speciation (Campbell, Weis)
• Invasive species biology (Bowler, Sakai, Suding, Weller)
• Restoration biology (Bowler, Carpenter, Suding)
• Community and ecosystem interactions (Suding, Treseder)
• Aspects of global change (Goulden, Pataki, Randerson, Suding,
Treseder, Trumbore)
Through a combination
of seminars, reading groups, faculty presentations, and graduate level
courses, graduate students are exposed to issues especially relevant
to their research interests. The collegiality and interactions among
faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in this group provide a supportive
and dynamic environment for research in plant biology.
There are strong
linkages within the department between the Plant Ecology and Evolution
Group and the Evolutionary Genetics
Research Group and the Global
Change Ecology Group. The Plant Ecology and Evolution Group also
maintains close ties with global change ecologists in the Department
of Earth System Science; two faculty (Pataki and Treseder) share
joint appointments.
A wide range of
facilities and field sites support the research of the faculty, postdocs,
and graduate students in this area, including the UCI
Protein Expression Facility, the DNA
Core Facility, the UCI Gas
Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy facility, the shared molecular
facility in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the
UCI greenhouse facility, the UCI Arboretum, the Ecological Reserve located
on campus, and the numerous natural habitats encompassed in the UC
Natural Reserve System. The UC
San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve is minutes from the campus,
and there are many other natural
sites in Orange County.
More information
for prospective graduate students is available through the UCI
Department of Ecology and Evolution website on graduate studies.
