EEB Faculty Index

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Earth & Marine Sciences A308
Phone: 831.459.5358
Fax: 831.459.5353
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KATHLEEN M. KAY Assistant Professor EEBiology B.S. UC Davis Ph.D. Michigan State University National Parks Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley KAY LAB

Earth & Marine Sciences A404 University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Phone: 831.459.3446 Fax: 831.459.5353 kay@biology.ucsc.edu

Plant Evolutionary Ecology

The objective of my research is an understanding of the processes of plant speciation and adaptation, with primary importance placed on evidence from wild plant systems. I seek to understand the ecological and geographical settings in which speciation occurs, the divergent adaptations and phenotypic changes that contribute to reproductive isolation, and the genetics underlying those adaptations. I am generally interested in how natural selection is involved in speciation, whether indirectly through ecological differentiation, or directly through processes like reinforcement. I am especially interested in plant adaptations to pollinators and to the edaphic environment, and the role those types of adaptations play in plant diversification at the species and population level.

My work combines field and greenhouse observations and experiments with insight from molecular genetics and phylogenetic inference. Although my research questions are applicable to all organisms, I find plants to be a particularly appropriate study system because of the wide variety of habitats that they occupy, their diversity of reproductive characteristics, and their logistical and experimental tractability. My study systems include a diverse radiation of gingers in the tropical forests of Central and South America and native California wildflowers.

Recent Publications

Kay, K. M. 2006. Reproductive isolation between two closely related hummingbird-pollinated Neotropical gingers. Evolution 60: 538-552.

Kay, K. M., J. Whittal, and S. A. Hodges. 2006. A survey of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer substitution rates across angiosperms: an approximate molecular clock with life history effects. BMC Evolutionary Biology 6: 36. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/6/36

Kay, K. M., Voelckel, C., Yang, J. Y., Hufford, K. M., Kaska, D. D., and S. A. Hodges. 2006. Floral characters and species diversification. Chapter 17 In: Ecology and Evolution of Flowers (Eds. L. Harder and S. Barrett) Oxford University Press.

Kay, K. M., Reeves, P., Olmstead, R., and D. W. Schemske. 2005. Rapid speciation and the evolution of hummingbird pollination in neotropical Costus subgenus Costus (Costaceae): evidence from nrDNA ITS and ETS sequences. American Journal of Botany 92: 1899 - 1910.

Kay, K. M. and D. W. Schemske. 2004. Geographic patterns in plant-pollinator mutualistic networks: Comment. Ecology 85: 875 - 878.

Kay, K. M. and D. W. Schemske. 2003. Pollinator assemblages and visitation rates for eleven species of Neotropical Costus of (Costaceae). Biotropica 35: 198-207.