Susanna Messinger

Susanna Messinger
Graduate student

M.S., Biology, Utah State University

B.S., Biology, Utah State University

U-M affiliation
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Contact information
University of Michigan
1300 Kraus Natural Science Building
830 North University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048

Email: susmess@umich.edu

Fields of study
Community evolution and ecology, theoretical biology

Research interests

I am interested in studying the mechanisms leading to community level emergent patterns and properties, both structural and dynamic. Many of these patterns seem ubiquitous across a wide variety of communities. While the recurrence of these patterns may be a result of consistent selective pressures, both biotic and abiotic, an interesting alternative is that these emergent patterns are a signature of community level adaptation. The implications are that community interactions may be shaped not only by selection on individuals, but also by selection on whole communities.

While the potential effects of higher-level selection have been explored theoretically in a few two-species systems, solid quantitative and empirical evidence of its importance is still lacking. In addition, little has been done to examine the effects on entire, complex communities. My current research goals include exploring the effects of community selection on the evolution of community interactions and, eventually, to identify the potentially adaptive role of various community level emergent properties and patterns.

Advisor

Annette Ostling

Publications

Messinger S.M., K.A. Mott, and D. Peak. Task-performing dynamics in irregular, biomimetic networks. Complexity (in press).

Messinger S.M., T.N. Buckley, and K.A. Mott. 2006. Evidence for involvement of photosynthetic processes in the stomatal response to CO2. Plant Physiology 140:771-778.

West, J.D., D. Peak, K.A. Mott, and S.M. Messinger. Comparing the dynamics of stomatal networks to the problem-solving dynamics of cellular computers. Proceedings of the International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004) (in press).

Peak, D., J.D. West, S.M. Messinger, and K.A. Mott. 2004. Evidence for complex, collective dynamics and distributed, emergent computation in plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 101:918-922.

Tepedino, V. J. and S.M. Messinger. 2004. Cymopterus beckii, a rare protogynous umbellifer (Apiaceae) of Capitol Reef National Park, central Utah. Madroño 51:271-274.

Whitfield, J.B., S.A. Cameron, S.R. Ramirez, K. Roesch, S.M. Messinger, O.M. Taylor, and D. Cole . 2001. Review of the Apanteles species (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) attacking Lepidoptera in Bombus (Fervidobombus) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies in the New World, with description of a new species from South America. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 94:851-857.