The start of 2025 also signified the start of my big ERC Starting grant MountBuzz: relating context-dependent plant-pollinator interactions to macroevolution. Our aim in this project is to study the evolution of reproductive strategies in the plant family Melastomataceae from both a community ecological and a macroevolutionary approach, thereby bridging the gap between the required detail for understanding plant-pollinator interactions in the environment (community approach) and the required broad sampling for understanding evolutionary patterns and drivers thereof (macroevolutionary approach).
In 2025, I will visit all four elevational gradients to train local students at each gradient and introduce student teams from the University of Vienna to the study systems. These teams, formed by students from local universities and the University of Vienna will then carry out the collection of data on Melastomataceae pollinator interactions, the mating system, flower longevity etc to understand how reproductive strategies change across elevational gradients. This also means that at each gradient, the team gets to hike from lowland rainforests to high elevation cloud forests in order to find many different Melastomataceae species to study.
In January, I travelled to Brazil to meet with César Arvelos, Jota Pereira, Carlos Mantallana and Marcela Puerto, team Brazil, to start fieldwork in the Atlantic Rainforest. Together with our collaborator and friend Vini de Brito, we travelled along the entire elevational gradients scouting for sites, and then started fieldwork in the beautiful Itatiaia National Park. Even after just a few days of fieldwork, we could make some exciting new observations on pollinators for Melastomataceae and definitely all learned a lot about the flower biology of the group. Not to forget some amazing Brazilian and Austrian dishes we shared in the evenings 🙂 Photo credit: César Arvelos, Agnes Dellinger
Now, in late February, I travelled on to Madagascar to continue the exploration trips together with my Malagasy PhD student Lalaina Ramiliarisona. From here, I will travel on to Borneo to train a mixed team from the University of Vienna and the Universiti of Malaysia in Sabah. If you are curious to read more about MountBuzz, also check out our project website: https://mountbuzz.univie.ac.at/