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35 East 12th Street, Holland, MI 49423-3605
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Title: “A tale of two research programs: Indigenous agricultural practices and imperfect buzz pollination”
Abstract: I am a plant evolutionary ecologist whose primary research explores plant responses to environmental change. However, I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you two unexpected and unrelated directions my research has expanded in recent years. I will start by telling you about how I have collaborated with the Catawba Indian Nation to assess whether traditional agricultural practices will help them achieve their food sovereignty initiatives. In one study, we examined the yield and labor demands of growing corn, beans, and squash in the traditional planting arrangement called the Three Sisters versus growing them individually. Our results illustrate how farmers could use different planting strategies to achieve different priorities (e.g., maximizing yield, conserving seeds, producing a balanced diet, etc.). I will also share a more recent set of experiments we are conducting to determine the mechanisms contributing to apparent self-fertilization in Chamaecrista fasciculata. Like many buzz-pollinated species, C. fasciculata’s pollen is produced inside tube-shaped anthers and can only be accessed after the vibrations and movements of bees shake it out. I will describe the steps we have taken so far to investigate how fruit are being produced on plants that experience no visitation by bees. Altogether, I hope to emphasize that novel scientific insights can be generated by interdisciplinary and/or opportunistic undergraduate-driven research at a liberal arts college.
Bio: Originally from Mexico and south Texas, Susana earned her BSc from the University of Texas at Austin in Ecology and Evolution and earned her PhD from the University of Toronto in Ecology and Evolution. She worked as a postdoc at the University of Georgia, where she traveled back and forth between Georgia and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where she did her field work. She is now an associate professor at Davidson College, which is a liberal arts college in North Carolina. Starting as an undergraduate, her research has focused on plant responses to environmental change. In specific, she explores how a plant’s genes and its environment interact to influence its traits and fitness. In her free time, she wrangles her two young sons, gardens, watching TV and crafting, and caring for one dog, two snails, and 10 fish, including one cranky catfish.
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