Progress 01/15/23 to 05/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Participants of all status were targeted includinggraduate students, post docs, assistant professors, associate professors, professors, research scientists, research directors, editors/journalists. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Plant-Herbivore Interaction GRS provides a unique forum for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to present their work, discuss new methods, cutting edge ideas, and pre-published data, as well as to build collaborative relationships with their peers. Experienced mentors and trainee moderators will facilitate active participation in scientific discussion to allow all attendees to be engaged participants rather than spectators. Many of those GRS participants attended the associated GRC meeting that followed to further their collaboration and networking opportunities with scientists within the field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
GRC: The Plant-Herbivore Interaction GRC was a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includeda diverse range of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference was five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference haddesignated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allowed for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field. Plant-herbivore interactions are the conduit for energy flow from the sun to the diversity of life on the planet. Understanding the genetic and chemical mechanisms underlying these interactions inform fundamental biological principles and hold the key for solving applied problems. Recent advances show that plant-herbivore interactions are at the center of networks of diverse communities, with the macroevolution of chemical defense a driver of plant and herbivore diversity. Variability in defenses affects antagonistic and mutualistic interactions, many of which are relevant for conservation. At the same time, sensory biology of herbivores operates at different spatial scales, with consequences for the effects of plant resistance in communities and in pest management applications. With each decade we are getting closer to understanding the genetic basis of adaptation, and current work in plant-herbivore interactions is revealing surprising rules that govern evolution in ecological communities. The meeting incorporated the interactions between plants and their vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores, including pollinators and seed dispersers, and associated microbes across wild and human dominated systems. Sessionshighlighted diverse speakers with diverse approaches to stimulate discussion about paths to push the discipline forward. The 15th Gordon Research Conference on Plant-Herbivore Interactions (GRC PHI) covered a wide range of topics, including sensory biology by plants and herbivores across scales, evolution of plant defenses, multispecies interactions, applications to pest management and climate change, and how new tools are changing our discipline. The GRC PHI conference prideditself in creating a congenial, inclusive atmosphere, which facilitatedfar-reaching discussions across a broad range of expertise and levels of experience. The collection of speakers came from across the globe and representeda diversity of ideas and knowledge. The 2023 GRC PHIfeatured a Power Hour, aimed at supporting the careers of female and underrepresented minority scientists, and wasbe preceded by a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) specifically tailored to early-career scientists including graduate students and postdocs. The Conference was well-attended with 190 participants. Scientists from academia represented 86% of the participants while attendees from government accounted for 1%,attendees from industry accounted for 1%and those from academic/industrial accounted for 12%. The meeting also attracted a strong mix of young investigators and senior scientists. Students and post-docs accounted for 51% of all attendees. Approximately 48% of the participants at the 2023 meeting were women. GRS Plant-herbivore interactions have evolved in response to co-evolutionary dynamics and selection driven by abiotic conditions. The seminar discussed the latest technological and theoretical advances aiming to unravel the evolutionary forces that determine plant-herbivore interactions, their context-dependency and potential applications to protect natural ecosystems and generate more sustainable agricultural practices. In the context of our unprecedent climate crisis, global warming is expected to affect plant interactions with beneficial and antagonistic herbivores. The GRS 2023 specifically welcomedcontributions on the complexity of plant-herbivore interactions at both individual and community levels in our rapidly changing environment. Finally, in addition to the sessions dedicated to oral and poster presentations, the 2023 GRS offered a mentoring session where young researchers will have the opportunity to discuss career planning, oriented towards academia or the private sector, with experienced researchers. The Seminar was well-attended with 61 participants ranging from acedmic, industrial and academic/industrial. The majority of participants were graduate students and postdocs with 5% of participants serving as key mentors during the program and networking opportunities.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Conference Program
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