Ashley Grupenhoff, doctoral student in the Hugh Safford lab.

The event begins at 5:45 with pizza and continues until 7 p.m.

Presenting their work are:

• Jasen Liu of the Santiago Ramírez lab, a member of the Graduate Group in Population Biology, who will discuss “Evolution of Floral Volatile Composite Across a Specialized Pollination System”
• Ashley Grupenhoff of the Hugh Safford lab, a member of the Graduate Group in Ecology, whose topic is “Plant Community Response to Increased Fire Frequency in Northern California Chaparral”
• Reed Kenny of the Dan Potter lab, a member of the Graduate Group in Ecology, who will cover "A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Placement of Juncus Sections Caespitosi and Graminifolii"

Jasen Liu, doctoral student in the Santiago Ramirez lab

Jasen Liu. "Jasen went to UC Santa Barbara for his undergraduate studies, where he worked in the Mazer and Hodges labs studying mating system evolution and variation in floral pigmentation, both within and across species. He is fascinated by floral evolution, particularly through the lens of plant-pollinator interactions, and joined the Ramirez lab in 2019 through the Population Biology graduate group. Jasen is interested in investigating macroevolutionary patterns of scent production in euglossine-pollinated plants, in addition to the role of microevolutionary processes on generating reproductive isolation."

Ashley Grupenhoff. "Ashley's research is aimed at examining the consequences of altered disturbance regimes on species composition and ecosystem function. She is particularly interested in the effects of prescribed fire in shaping plant species, populations, and communities and is currently working with CalFire to implement a long-term monitoring program of prescribed fire in California. Before coming to Davis, she has conducted fieldwork across multiple taxa in Ecuador, American Samoa, and the western United States. Ashley obtained her BS in Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University."

Reed Kenny.  "I am broadly interested in plant evolution and biodiversity. My past work has focused on plant taxonomy and floristics. My current interests are in the systematics of the genus Juncus. My ongoing projects include using molecular systematics to confirm the non-monophyly of the genus, resolve subgeneric relationships and study biogeographic patterns in the genus."

The Davis Botanical Society awards research grants to graduate and undergraduate students at UC Davis to help defray the expenses of independent study or other research projects. The student projects are field-oriented and related to plant taxonomy or plant evolutionary biology and ecology. A previous recipient was Shawn Christensen of the Rachel Vannette lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

The Davis Botanical Society is the support organization for the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity and Botanical Conservatory. Membership includes subscription to the semi-annual newsletter, Lasthenia, as well as invitations to talks, field trips, and other events.

For more information, contact the Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium at (530) 752-1091 or Teri Barry, collections manager, at tcbarry@ucdavis.edu.