Every organism on this planet must interact with its environment. Over evolutionary time, these interactions have mostly occurred using the language of chemistry. The process of organisms interacting with each other and their environment describes "ecology", and so considering the role of natural chemicals in those interactions describes "chemical ecology".

Organisms use the language of chemistry to communicate (and to eavesdrop!) and to alter their quality. Both of these roles for chemistry affect ecological interactions and structure evolutionary dynamics.

Plants live stressful lives. They must cope with unpredictable environmental conditions, from competition with other plants for limited resources to herbivores consuming their tissues or pathogens causing disease. They must do all this without moving (for the most part).

That is, they must be resilient to any environmental variation. They do this through, among other ways, through the language of chemistry.

We are dedicated to understanding the basic nature of how chemistry influences the ecological interactions of plants, the regulatory mechanisms plants use to use to influence the chemistry involved, and how environmental variation affects these interactions. We are particularly interested in phenotypic plasticity: the ability of a plant (or any organism) to modify its phenotype to acclimate to environmental variation. Plants must react to dynamic environmental changes (i.e., herbivores, pathogens, pollinators, resource availability, drought) with dynamic physiological changes that help them either tolerate or actively resist the stress.

Here's one of our favorites: Plant can smell their environment and sense "danger", and then respond to that danger by priming defenses. This phenomenon is one of the most remarkable aspects of plant biology.

In addition to fundamental research, we also think about how our results can be applied to help address real-world challenges.

As described here, "As chemical ecologists, we seek to understand how the distribution and abundance of organisms, as well as their complex interactions, mutualism and parasitism, predator-prey cycles, community assembly, are mediated by chemical agents across different spatial and temporal scales." The types of research questions we pursue require a diverse array of expertise. As such, my personal interests and experiences can be considered Molecular Ecology, Chemical Ecology, Physiological Ecology, Ecosystem Ecology, Evolutionary Ecology, Entomology, and Fundamental Plant Biology.

Ultimately, most plants benefit by being flexible with their body shapes and, possibly more importantly, with their considerably complex chemistry. This flexibility is called "phenotypic plasticity". Such phenotypic plasticity is regulated by complex processes integrating gene expression, protein synthesis, phytohormone signaling, and metabolic shifts. These complex processes occurring within a plant also shape how the plant interacts with its environment, or its 'ecological interactions'. As a plant biologist, I am fascinated by the intricate regulation required to control trait variation. As an ecologist, I study the nature of interactions that are influenced by plant trait variation, including direct and indirect effects of the trait variation on ecological interactions and how this influences their resilience against biotic and abiotic stress.

Beyond the basic science of chemical ecology, I am fascinated by the diversity of so-called "secondary metabolites" or "specialized metabolites" that plants produce. In fact, my interest in plant defense has its roots in an early pursuit of ethnobotany. A number of the metabolites that plants use to defend themselves against herbivores or pathogens have direct and clear roles in maintaining human health, and humans routinely exploit botanical chemistry for our benefit. A great deal of my interest in defense-related polyphenolics and terpenes is ultimately based on the utility of these diverse classes of compounds to human enterprise.

Ultimately, the study of plant secondary metabolism provides both for an understanding of the selective forces at play in natural systems as well as offering a number of tangible applied outcomes in medicine, energy, and agriculture.

Much of our work is funded by external sources. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or other funding agencies or universities.