Since September 2012, I’ve been a postdoctoral fellow in Mark Westoby’s lab in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University.
I’m looking at the plant functional traits that relate to stem damage by insect herbivores. We would expect that certain plant traits such as thicker bark and denser wood would be associated with lower levels of stem damage. I will be considering this relationship along a latitudinal gradient to consider the classic hypothesis that there is more herbivore pressure and plants are more defended closer to the equator.
Examples of stem damage
Here are some examples of the types of stem damage I’m looking at as part of my postdoc. All photos are from Australian native plants collected at Bothwell in Tasmania.
Galls (last one probably microbial, not insect but it’s an awesome gall!)
Splitting damage
External feeding on bark
Holes and slits
Internal feeding
