Department of Entomology

Title: "Global Change in our Gardens"

Abstract: Potatoes in Ireland, tomatoes in Italy, and cucumbers in America: Where did these familiar, delicious plants come from, and how were they able to colonize the world? And, is this global crop plant movement consequence free? To explore these questions, I use cucurbits and their biotic community to explore the unintentional consequences of global crop plant movement on co-evolved plant-microbe and plant-insect ecological interactions, and discuss how anthropogenic changes in agro-ecosystems affect agricultural sustainability.