NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biology combine research and training components to prepare young scientists for careers in biology and require a plan to broaden participation of groups under-represented in science and engineering. The fellowships advance NSF efforts to diversify the STEM workforce now and in the future. The research plan for this fellowship to David Gonthier asks if functional traits and genetic relatedness of crop diversity influence pollination, pest control, and yield in order to understand the ecological consequences of biodiversity. The research and training are being conducted at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Göttingen, Germany with sponsoring scientists Drs. Claire Kremen and Teja Tscharntke. Training goals include learning new phylogenetic and functional analyses. Undergraduates from under-represented groups are involved in field research and meta-analysis. A short term visit to Germany adds an international dimension to the research and training.
While increased species diversity has been shown to improve multiple ecosystem functions, few studies have investigated how functional traits and genetic relatedness of species contribute to these diversity effects and specifically in agricultural ecosystems where functions may be of economic value. For example, it may be that planting fields with distantly related plant species improves natural resistance to crop-specialist pests. Or perhaps increasing the range of seasonal flowering traits amongst plants might maximizes pollinator persistence and crop pollination. Although strawberry (Rosaceae: Fragaria x ananassa) can self-pollinate, marketable fruit yield may depend on pollinator diversity as flowers pollinated by multiple species are more-fully developed. This fellowship research is being conducted in and around the Salinas and Central Valleys of California, among the most productive regions of the U.S. for strawberry production as well as salad greens, Brassica crops, spinach, and tomatoes. In large scale California agroecosystems, strawberries are grown in monocultures in order to mechanize production and facilitate ease of harvest. However, in smaller scale systems, and in other regions, strawberries are intercropped with a wide variety of other crops. Recent research of such agroecosystems has demonstrated that intercropping with strawberries does not limit strawberry yields. Using field experiments and meta-analysis of the scientific literature, this research seeks to determine if functional traits and genetic relatedness of crop diversity impacts the focal crop pollination and limits crop-damage by pests and diseases. Finally, this project combines this information to identify potential trade-offs or synergies between pollination, pest control, and yield.
