Germán Avila-Sakar
Title: Associate Professor
Phone: 204.786.9326
Office: 2RC039
Building: Richardson College for the Environment and Science Complex
Email: g.avila-sakar@uwinnipeg.ca
Biography:
Current Projects
- Herbivory in dioecious plant populations of Nova Scotia
- Resistance and tolerance to herbivory in Arabidopsis
- Evolution of unisexuality in Cucurbita
- The shape of the tolerance function in Brassica rapa
Past Students
- Graduate
- Nicholas Buckley – M. Sc., Biology Graduate Program, Acadia University (2008)
- Undergraduate
- Caroline Tucker – Honours, Biology, Mount Saint Vincent University (2008) (also NSERC, USRA 2007, 2008)
- Liam McNeil – Honours, Biology, Mount Saint Vincent University (2006)
- Rogelio Cruz Reyes – Honours, Universidad Nacional Aut–noma de Mexico (2005)
- Carolyn Marshall – Honours, Acadia University (2004, co-supervised with Dr. Ed Reekie)
- Deana Sharpe – Directed Studies
- Jayne Bellefontaine – Directed Studies
- Tessa Protasivich – NSERC-USRA summer research (2005, 2006)
- Sarah Surette – NSERC-USRA summer research (2006)
Affiliations:
Other Universities
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Dalhousie University - Biology
Research Interests:
I study the evolution of 1) plant sexual systems, and 2) defence against herbivores. Both topics are connected through resource allocation theory. How should plants partition their resources between the male and female reproductive functions to achieve greater fitness? How much should plants invest resources on growth, defence and reproduction at the different stages of their life cycles? I approach these questions from both evolutionary and physiological perspectives.
Currently, I can only support applications from candidates who already hold a scholarship or equivalent form of full or partial funding to conduct masters, doctoral or post-doctoral studies in any aspect of plant evolutionary ecology, especially in plant-animal interactions, plant defence, evolution of plant sexual systems, plant reproductive allocation, and pollination biology.
http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~gavila
Publications:
Recent Publications
Marshall, C., Avila-Sakar, G. and Reekie, E.G. 2008. Effects of nutrient and CO2 availability on tolerance to herbivory in Brassica rapa. Plant Ecology 196:1-13.
Journal articles
Avila-Sakar, G., Leist, L.L. and stephenson, A.G. 2006. Effects of the spatial pattern of leaf damage on growth and reproduction: whole plants. International Journal of Plant Sciences 167:1021-1028.
Avila-Sakar, G., Leist, L.L. and stephenson, A.G. 2003. Effects of the spatial pattern of leaf damage on growth and reproduction: nodes and branches. Journal of Ecology 91: 867-879.
Avila-Sakar, G., Simmers, S.M. and stephenson, A.G. 2003. The interrelationships among leaf damage, anther development, and pollen production in Cucurbita pepo ssp. texana (Cucurbitaceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 164: 395-404.
Avila-Sakar, G., Krupnick, G.A., and Stephenson, A.G. 2001. Growth and sex allocation in Cucurbita pepo ssp. texana: Effects of fruit removal. International Journal of Plant Sciences 162: 1089-1095.
Krupnick, G.A., Avila, G., Brown, K.M., and Stephenson, A.G. 2000. The effects of herbivory on internal ethylene production and sex expression in Cucurbita texana. Functional Ecology 14: 215-225.
Avila-Sakar, G., and Dominguez, C.A. 2000. Parental effects and gender specialization in a tropical heterostylous shrub. Evolution 54: 866-877.
Book chapters
Dominguez, C.A. y Avila-Sakar, G. 2002. Erythroxylum havanense In Historia natural de Chamela. F.N. Martinez, J.V. Rivera y M.Q. Avendano (eds.). Instituto de Biologia, UNAM, Mexico.
Reekie, E.G. and Avila-Sakar, G. 2005. Contrasting resource requirements of vegetative versus reproductive growth: implications for reproductive allocation. Reekie E.G. and Bazzaz, F.A. (eds.) The Allocation of Resources to Reproduction in Plants. Academic Press, San Diego.