Nicole Rafferty

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
E-mail: nrafferty@email.arizona.edu
Lab: BioSciences West 409A
Mailing address: P.O. Box 210088
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721-0088

• Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
• Research Interests
• Publications
• Personal Site

I am interested in understanding how climate change-induced shifts in the timing of life history events affect species interactions. Many plants are flowering earlier as a result of climate change, and the emergence and first appearance dates of some insects have also advanced. There is currently much concern that these phenological shifts will lead to temporal mismatches in ecologically and economically important plant-insect interactions, such as those between plants and pollinators. Using an experimental approach, I plan to modify the relative timing of interactions between the tobacco hormworm hawkmoth (Manduca sexta) and its host plant, Datura (Datura wrightii), at multiple ontogenetic stages. Because the hawkmoth interacts with Datura both as an herbivore and as a pollinator, phenological shifts could have large ecological and fitness consequences that may alter the costs and benefits of the interaction.