Anurag Agrawal, Cornell University
Professor
Ithaca, New York
agrawal@cornell.edu
Office:
(607) 254-4255
Expert In
Bio/Research
My research program addresses questions in the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and animals. In particular, we focus on the generally antagonistic interactions between plants and insect herbivores and ultimately seek to understand the complexity of community-wide interactions....
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Bio/Research
My research program addresses questions in the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and animals. In particular, we focus on the generally antagonistic interactions between plants and insect herbivores and ultimately seek to understand the complexity of community-wide interactions. What ecological factors allow the coexistence of similar species? What evolutionary factors led to the diversification of species? In total, plants and insect herbivores comprise about one half of earth's macroscopic biodiversity and herbivory accounts for major losses in agriculture. Given that herbivory is the conduit through which most of plant's autotrophic energy is transmitted to the rest of the food web, the focus on plant-herbivore interactions in justifiably important. My approach to science includes:
1) rigorous, manipulative field experiments to test for the importance of conceptually or theoretically developed interactions, 2) comparative phylogenetic approaches to describing deep evolutionary patterns which bear on long-standing hypotheses, 3) the search for novel interactions which may be pervasive in nature but have escaped our attention, and 4) a keen interest in teaching and mentoring students at all levels of education.
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1) rigorous, manipulative field experiments to test for the importance of conceptually or theoretically developed interactions, 2) comparative phylogenetic approaches to describing deep evolutionary patterns which bear on long-standing hypotheses, 3) the search for novel interactions which may be pervasive in nature but have escaped our attention, and 4) a keen interest in teaching and mentoring students at all levels of education.
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