Research in the Biere Group focuses on the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and their natural enemies and mutualists. We aim to understand how plant defenses and other life history traits evolve in the context of the plant’s community of above- and belowground mutualists and antagonists, including mycorrhizae, pathogens, herbivores and the herbivore’s natural enemies.
Conversely, we are interested in how genetic variation in these plant traits affects the plant's above- and belowground communities and how plants mediate the interactions between them.
Research
Climate change, species introductions and changes in land use disrupt and alter interactions between plants and their biotic environment. We aim to understand how plants adapt to their complex and changing biotic environment by studying selection and adaptation in their interactions with mutualists and antagonists. Eventually, such information is important to predict how plants respond to environmental variation and change.
We use two study systems. In ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata) we study fitness consequences of variation in plant defense compounds in the plant’s interaction with mutualists (mycorrhizae), pathogens, herbivores and the herbivore’s natural enemies, using artificial selection lines with high and low levels of defense compounds. We also use this system to study plant (genotype)-mediated interactions between above- and belowground communities, for instance how changes in the mycorrhizal community affect the plant’s defense against aboveground herbivores. These studies are performed at both ecological and molecular level. In white campion (Silene latifolia) we study evolutionary changes following introduction of plants to a novel continent, testing predictions about evolutionary shifts in allocation to defense and other life history traits. We also use this system to study how environmental factors can shift the balance between mutualism and antagonism. The main pollinator of S. latifolia has a dual role of pollinator (mutualism) and seed predator (antagonism) and we study what prevents this system to shift from mutualism towards antagonism.
Outside NIOO we collaborate with the Metapopulation Research Group in Finland (Saskya van Nouhuys and Ayco Tack) on multitrophic interactions in P. lanceolata and with the University of Salzburg, Austria (Stefan Dötterl) on multitrophic interactions in S. latifolia. Recently we initiated an international working group on Plant-Microbe-Insect interactions to enhance our understanding of the ecology and evolution of three-way interactions between plants, microbes and insects. A successful first exploratory workshop in 2011 that we got funded by ESF was recently followed up by a second workshop in Baeza, Spain.
Current group-members:
