Margarita López-Uribe of Pennsylvania State University will present an online seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on "Ecoevolutionary Consequences of Crop Domestication on Plant-Pollinator Interactions" on Wednesday, May 12.

López-Uribe, the Lorenzo L. Langstroth Early Career Professor and assistant professor of entomology, will deliver the seminar from 4:10 to 5 p.m. Host is community ecologist Rachel Vannette, assistant professor of entomology. Access the online seminar here.

"Despite the dominance of domesticated plants across the globe, the mechanisms by which human-mediated selection shapes the ecological interactions and reciprocal evolutionary changes of crop-pollinator interactions have not been systematically investigated," López-Uribe says in her abstract. "In this talk, I will present ongoing research using the plant genus Cucurbita and their specialized pollinators to investigate: (1) the role of crop domestication on the evolution of floral functional traits, (2) the expansion of pollinator populations following extensive crop cultivation, and (3) how shifts in floral signaling of domesticated plants drive changes in pollinator foraging behavior."

López-Uribe holds a bachelor of science degree in biology from the University de los Andes, Colombia, and her master's degree in genetics and evolution from Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil. She received her doctorate in entomology from Cornell University and served as a National Science Foundation  postdoctoral fellow at North Carolina State University.

Of her research interests, she says: "Declines in bee populations worldwide have raised concerns about the environmental and economic consequences of pollination loss in natural and human-dominated ecosystems. I am interested in understanding how environmental change (e.g. land use, climate) and management (e.g. beekeeping practices) drive changes in population demography and health of wild and managed bee species. My ultimate goal is to contribute with informed strategies for conservation and restoration of bee populations and the ecosystem services they provide."

Cooperative Extension specialist Ian Grettenberger coordinates the spring seminars, which take place every Wednesday at 4:10 p.m. He may be reached at imgrettenberger@ucdavis.edu for any technical issues.