A second line of research investigates natural selection on and the demographic consequences of dormant seed banks in natural plant populations. In annual plants, not all seeds produced in one season germinate in the subsequent growing season. Instead, some seed do not germinate and remain alive forming a population of dormant seeds in the soil termed a seed bank. Most annual species and even many perennial plants form seed banks. We are working towards a general understanding of how seed banks function, both ecologically and genetically. Seed banks are significant features of plant life histories because plants emerging from the seed bank can restore low populations sizes. Seed banks can even buffer populations from extinction in the face of catastrophies. In addition, seed banks can store genetic variation not seen in the growing fraction of the population thus function as a repository of genetic diversity. Understanding the ecology and evolution of seed banks is central to the conservation and protection of native biodiversity.

The thread that weaves these apparently disparate research areas together is our fundamental interest in how adaptive evolution proceeds in the face of environmental unpredictability. Species that live in chronically variable environments often possess adaptations that may mitigate the consequences of the variation. Therefore environmental variation itself can select for suites of traits that allow plants to persist and reproduce, despite the unpredictability. Seed banks and the ability to self-pollinate in the absence of pollinators are primary adaptations possessed by many plant species that buffer the effects of temporal variability.

Since we are interested in how both ecological and genetic factors interact to shape the evolution of these traits, much of our research involves a combination of field and greenhouse experiments with native wildflower populations. The majority of our research uses Collinsia verna as a model system because it has a short generation time, is easily crossed, we have developed techniques for producing clonal replicates of individual genotypes and Collinsia verna is a member of a genus with + 18 annual species whose breeding systems range from pure outcrossing to pure selfing.

We have several projects in progress in our lab, which range from the genetic to the community level and employ analytical methods that range from quantitative genetic analyses, demographic projection analyses to species richness and abundance metrics of communities. Some of the current research projects in our lab (detailed descriptions available at our lab website) address the following: