Jennifer Rudgers (project leader), Kenneth Whitney and Calvin Trostle of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department of Rice University are requesting $200,000 for a 2-year research project on the ecological and evolutionary impacts of pollinator sharing between cultivated and wild sunflowers. Through a combination of observational and experimental field studies, they hope to examine the interactions between cultivated and wild sunflowers. More specifically, the research aims to study the interaction of pollinators (more often than not bees) with wild and crop sunflowers:
–Does close proximity of wild sunflowers alter behavior, composition or abundance of pollinators visiting crop sunflowers?
–Does close proximity of wild sunflowers alter sunflower crop yield?
–Does close proximity of cultivated sunflowers alter behavior, composition or abundance of pollinators visiting wild sunflowers?
–Does close proximity of cultivated sunflowers alter natural selection of floral traits of wild sunflowers?
Research will be conducted at four different locations in Texas:
–The city of Corpus Christi in collaboration with a local farmer, Charles Ring
–The city of Temple in collaboration with two local farmers
–The city of Lubbock in collaboration with local farmers
–Texas A&M facilities
These principal investigators have recruited 7 students (1 graduate and 6 undergraduate) to help with the project as well as provide a learning opportunity. These students will be given the opportunity to present their findings in the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium and at national meetings.