Rona Learmonth

I study local adaptation to host plant phenology and how it varies with the spatial scale considered using the winter moth (Operophtera brumata) as a study species. Winter moths are a key food item for passerine birds like great tits, whose breeding success is affected by the phenological synchrony between peak food demands and peak food availability. I primarily use experimental methods, including translocations and common garden experiments in climate chambers, to understand how phenologically variable landscapes may give rise to local adaptation at different scales, as well as the implications this may have for population trajectory and asynchrony under continued climate change.

ecology, evolution