The goal of my research is to connect patterns of biodiversity with the ecological mechanisms and evolutionary processes responsible for the observed patterns. My research involves describing biogeographic patterns of biodiversity; testing hypotheses for the mechanistic basis of the pattern; and identifying the evolutionary processes driving biogeographical patterns. Examples of biogeographic patterns that I study include clines in body size and species replacement across the landscape. Examples of mechanisms I study include variation in life history traits, phenotypic plasticity, spatial variation in abiotic (e.g., hydroperiod, temperature) and biotic factors (e.g., host plants, predation, competition). I am interested in several evolutionary processes that produce biogeographic patterns including natural selection & adaptation, genetic drift, and dispersal.
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In collaboration with a population geneticist, a life historian, a physiologist, and a mathematician, I am currently using molecular genetic, physiological, and mathematical techniques, in combination with field and laboratory experiments, to examine spatial and temporal variation in adult size of the lubber grasshopper (Romalea microptera) in south Florida. We have demonstrated that adult lubbers exhibit a longitudinal cline in body size (see Figure above) and tested whether variation in life history traits could result in this cline (Jannot et al. in prep). I have successfully amplified microsatellite loci from lubbers using primers designed for other grasshopper species. These microsatellite loci will be used to test models of gene flow and dispersal among populations of south Florida lubbers. Results from the molecular genetic study will be compared to results from quantitative genetic and reciprocal transplant experiments. The combination of molecular and quantitative genetic approaches will allow me to assess the relative roles of dispersal (microsatellite loci), natural selection (reciprocal transplant) and phenotypic plasticity (quantitative genetics) in producing the adult size cline in lubbers.
Evolutionary and geographic variation in body size, wing size & other morphological traits
of adult net-spinning caddisflies
| Jason E. Jannot Postdoctoral Researcher BEES Section, Dept. of Biological Sciences Illinois State University jjannot-at-ilstu dot edu |
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