Landscape coevolution of bursera plants and its herbivores

• Judith X. Becerra

Abstract
In order to understand the macroevolutionary context of the ecology of plant-herbivore interactions we need to have integrative studies that merge, historical, ecological, and biogeographic information. I would like to spend a year exploring the combination of molecular phylogenetics, character reconstruction and ecological data including biogeographical ranges, to study the landscape coevolution and co-diversification of a plant-herbivore association. My plan is to use the first two thirds of the year to analyze data and the last third to write manuscripts. This analysis represents an important advance in knowledge and understanding of plant herbivore interactions because it involves studying an ecological interaction at an unconventional level: that of reciprocal innovations along interacting generic phylogenies in different biogeographic arenas.