Current areas of research include 1) interactions between bottom-up forces (plant defenses) and top-down control (predators and parasitoids) of herbivores, 2) the influence of plant defenses on a community of organisms including insects and pathogens, and 3) the ecology of fear, how herbivores behaviorally and physiologically respond to the presence of predators. This research is conducted using crop plants in agricultural settings as well as their wild relatives in natural communities.
Selected Publications
Tigreros, N., A.A. Agrawal & J.S. Thaler. 2020. Genetic variation in parental effects contributes to the evolutionary potential of antipredator plasticity. American Naturalist (bioRxiv748251)
Aflitto, N., and J.S. Thaler. 2020. Predator Pheromone Elicits a Temporally Dependent Non-Consumptive Effect in Prey. Ecological Entomology, 45: 1190-1199. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12905
Kersch-Becker, M. and J.S. Thaler. 2019. Constitutive and herbivore-induced plant defenses regulate herbivore population growth. Journal of Animal Ecology, 88:1079-1088.
Wetzel, W.C., N. Aflitto, J.S. Thaler. 2018. Plant genotypic diversity interacts with predation risk to influence an insect herbivore across its ontogeny. Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2472
Hermann, S.L. and J.S. Thaler. 2018. The effect of predator presence on the behavioral sequence from host selection to reproduction in an invulnerable stage of insect prey. Oecologia 188: 945-952. 10.1007/s00442-018-4202-7.
Tigreros, N., E. Wang, and J.S. Thaler. 2018. Prey nutritional state drives divergent behavioural and physiological responses to predation risk. Functional Ecology 32:982-989. 10.1111/1365-2435.13046
Kersch-Becker, M.F., Kessler, A, and J.S. Thaler. 2017. Plant defenses limit herbivore population growth by changing predator-prey interactions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.DOI:
10.1098/rspb.2017.1120
Tigreros, N, R. Norris, E. Wang, J. S. Thaler. 2017. Maternally induced intraclutch cannibalism: an adaptive response to predation risk? Ecology Letters 20: 487-494. 10.1111/ele.12752
Raguso, R.A., Agrawal, A.A., Douglas, A.E., Jander, G., Kessler, A., Poveda, K, and J.S. Thaler. 2015. The raison d'être of chemical ecology. Ecology, 96:617-630. DOI 10.1007/s00442-014-3069-5
