Harper Adams University; Agriculture and Environment; UK
Our collaboration with Dr. Simon T. Segar focuses on tropical plant–insect interactions and community-level drivers of herbivory, with an emphasis on how plant defensive traits shape insect herbivore diversity and structure. By combining field-based ecological research, chemical ecology, and metabolomic analyses, we investigate multitrophic interactions across environmental gradients in natural ecosystems.
Within this partnership, our laboratory contributes LC-MS–based profiling of plant defensive metabolites and data-driven interpretation of chemical traits, supporting large-scale studies of insect herbivore communities associated with Ficus species. This collaboration integrates analytical chemistry with evolutionary and community ecology, providing mechanistic insights into the ecological and evolutionary processes structuring tropical herbivore assemblages.
Joint publications:
Sam K., et al. (2020) Biotropica 52: 263-276. DOI: 10.1111/btp.12741
Volf M., et al. (2018) Ecology Letters 21: 83-92. DOI: 10.1111/ele.12875