Our research and teaching are deeply rooted in organismal biology, i.e. the study of structure, function, and evolution at the level of the organism. We focus on questions of plant diversity – How have key structural features such as the angiosperm flower evolved? How is morphological diversity distributed among taxa? How are different structural features correlated with one another? Why are certain morphologies common and have evolved repeatedly while others are rare? We address these and related questions across a broad range of taxa and apply state-of-the art techniques as well as novel theoretical approaches to answer them.
News
- Science-News-Article:
"Plant turns suspected crop pest into pollinator" – 13. October 2022 - Science ORF.at (german):
"Blüten nutzen Parasiten als Bestäuber" – 6. October 2022 - Online-Article mediaportal University of Vienna (german):
"Aus Feind wird Freund: Schädlinge werden zu Pflanzenbestäubern" – 6. October 2022 - Publication in Current Biology:
"Evidence for the recruitment of florivorous plant bugs as pollinators" – 4. October 2022 - Young Researchers in Archaeometry 5 (Online Workshop):
Tutorial: Is pollen useful for achaeological research? The what, why, and how! - The Museumspodcast »Das Grüne Sofa« (german):
"Flower-Power: Vergangenen Ökosystemen auf der Spur – Die Erforschung von Pollen fossiler Blüten und Insekten" (Podcast mit Friðgeir Grímsson) - Online-Article mediaportal University of Vienna (german):
"Fossiler Fressrausch: 47 Millionen Jahre alte Fliege mit vollem Bauch gefunden" – 11. März 2021 - Online-Article mediaportal University of Vienna:
"How flowers adapt to their pollinators" – 5. Dezember 2019
Recent Publications 2020-2022
2023
Frey, B., Moser, B., Tytgat, B., Zimmermann, S., Alberti, J., Biederman, L. A., Borer, E. T., Broadbent, A. A. D., Caldeira, M. C., Davies, K. F., Eisenhauer, N., Eskelinen, A., Fay, P. A., Hagedorn, F., Hautier, Y., MacDougall, A. S., McCulley, R. L., Moore, J. L., Nepel, M., ... Risch, A. C. (2023). Long-term N-addition alters the community structure of functionally important N-cycling soil microorganisms across global grasslands. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 176. doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108887
2022
Adroit, B., Grimsson, F., Suc, J-P., Escarguel, G., Zetter, R., Bouchal, J. M., Fauquette, S., Zhuang, X., & Djamali, M. (2022). Are morphological characteristics of Parrotia (Hamamelidaceae) pollen species diagnostic? Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 307, [104776]. doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104776
Geier, C., Bouchal, J. M., Ulrich, S., Gross, M., Zetter, R., Denk, T., & Grimsson, F. (2022). Paleovegetation and paleoclimate inferences of the early late Sarmatian palynoflora from the Gleisdorf Fm. at Gratkorn, Styria, Austria. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 307, [104767]. doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104767
Etl, F., Kaiser, C., Reiser, O., Schubert, M., Dötterl, S., & Schönenberger, J. (2022). Evidence for the recruitment of florivorous plant bugs as pollinators. Current Biology, 32(21), 4688-4698.e6. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.013
Artuso, S., Gamisch, A., Staedler, Y. M., Schönenberger, J., & Comes, H. P. (2022). Evidence for an evo-devo-derived hypothesis on three-dimensional flower shape modularity in a tropical orchid clade. Evolution. doi.org/10.1111/evo.14621
Nepel, M., Pfeifer, J., Oberhauser, F. B., Richter, A., Woebken, D., & Mayer, V. E. (2022). Nitrogen fixation by diverse diazotrophic communities can support population growth of arboreal ants. BMC Biology, 20(1), [135]. doi.org/10.1186/s12915-022-01289-0
Dellinger, A. S., Paun, O., Baar, J., Temsch, E. M., Fernández-Fernández, D., & Schönenberger, J. (2022). Population structure in Neotropical plants: Integrating pollination biology, topography and climatic niches. Molecular Ecology, 31(8), 2264-2280. doi.org/10.1111/mec.16403
Nepel, M., Angel, R., Borer, E. T., Frey, B., MacDougall, A. S., McCulley, R. L., Risch, A. C., Schütz, M., Seabloom, E. W., & Woebken, D. (2022). Global Grassland Diazotrophic Communities Are Structured by Combined Abiotic, Biotic, and Spatial Distance Factors but Resilient to Fertilization. Frontiers in Microbiology, 13, [821030]. doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.821030
Quan, Y., da Silva, N. M., de Souza Lima, B. J. F., de Hoog, S., Vicente, V. A., Mayer, V., Kang, Y., & Shi, D. (2022). Black fungi and ants: a genomic comparison of species inhabiting carton nests versus domatia. IMA Fungus, 13(1), 4. [4]. doi.org/10.1186/s43008-022-00091-5
Etl, F., Francke, W., Schönenberger, J., & Dötterl, S. (2022). Chemical Attraction of Gall Midge Pollinators (Cecidomyiidae: Cecidomyiinae) to Anthurium acutangulum (Araceae). Journal of Chemical Ecology, 48(3), 263-269. doi.org/10.1007/s10886-022-01349-3
Gao, J., Engel, M. S., Grimsson, F., Gu, L., Ren, D., & Gao, T-P. (2022). The first xiphydriid wood wasp in Cretaceous amber (Hymenoptera: Xiphydriidae) and a potential association with Cycadales. Fossil record, 24(2), 445-453. doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-445-2022
Vieira, M., Zetter, R., Coiro, M., & Grimsson, F. (2022). Pliocene Lythrum (loosestrife, Lythraceae) pollen from Portugal and the Neogene establishment of European lineages. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 296, [104548]. doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2021.104548
Bao, T., Grimsson, F., Beutel, R. G., Wedmann, S., Seyfullah, L., Bao, L., & Jarzembowski, E. A. (2022). Was the kateretid beetle Pelretes really a Cretaceous angiosperm pollinator? Nature Plants, 8(1), 38–40. doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01044-3
Pedersoli, G. D., Staedler, Y. M., Schönenberger, J., & Teixeira, S. P. (2022). A comparative approach reveals diversity of floral developmental processes in Urticaceae. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, XX, 1-26. doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boac028
Heřmanová, Z., Čepičková, J., Kvaček, J., von Balthazar-Schönenberger, A. M. L., & Schönenberger, J. (2022). A multicarpellate fruit from Late Cretaceous sediments of South Bohemia, Czech Republic. Palaeontologia Electronica, 25(1), 1-14. [a5]. doi.org/10.26879/1192
López-Martínez, A. M., Schönenberger, J., von Balthazar-Schönenberger, A. M. L., González-Martínez, C. A., Ramírez-Barahona, S., Sauquet, H., & Magallón, S. (2022). Integrating Fossil Flowers into the Angiosperm Phylogeny using a Total Evidence Approach. bioRxiv. doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.17.480913
Halbwachs, H., Grimsson, F., Potapova, M., Dolezych, M., & LePage, B. (2022). Microfossils in resin from the middle Eocene Buchanan Lake Formation, Napartulik, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada. Palynology, 1-13. doi.org/10.1080/01916122.2022.2127956
Dellinger, A. S., Kopper, C., Kagerl, K., & Schönenberger, J. (2022). Pollination in Melastomataceae: A Family-Wide Update on the Little We Know and the Much That Remains to Be Discovered. In R. Goldenberg, F. A. Michelangeli, & F. Almeda (Eds.), Systematics, Evolution, and Ecology of Melastomataceae (pp. 585-607). Springer International Publishing Switzerland. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99742-7_26
Helmstetter, A. J., Zenil-Ferguson, R., Sauquet, H., Otto, S. P., Méndez, M., Vallejo-Marin, M., Schönenberger, J., Burgarella, C., Anderson, B., de Boer, H., Glémin, S., & Käfer, J. (2022). Trait-dependent diversification in angiosperms: patterns, models and data. bioRxiv. doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.18.490882
2021
Asenbaum, J., Schäffler, I., Etl, F., Dötterl, S., Schönenberger, J., & Chartier, M. (2021). Comparative Pollination Ecology of Five European Euphorbia Species. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 182(9), 763-777. doi.org/10.1086/715759
Wolcott, K. A., Chomicki, G., Staedler, Y. M., Wasylikowa, K., Nesbitt, M., Schönenberger, J., & Renner, S. S. (2021). Three-dimensional X-ray-computed tomography of 3300- to 6000-year-old Citrullus seeds from Libya and Egypt compared to extant seeds throws doubts on species assignments. Plants, People, Planet, 3(6), 694-702. doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10220
Artuso, S., Gamisch, A., Staedler, Y. M., Schönenberger, J., & Comes, H. P. (2021). Evidence for selectively constrained 3D flower shape evolution in a Late Miocene clade of Malagasy Bulbophyllum orchids. New Phytologist, 232(2), 853-867. doi.org/10.1111/nph.17643
Dellinger, A. S., Artuso, S., Fernández-Fernández, D. M., & Schönenberger, J. (2021). Stamen dimorphism in bird-pollinated flowers – investigating alternative hypotheses on the evolution of heteranthery. Evolution, 75(10), 2589-2599. doi.org/10.1111/evo.14260
Valverde-Espinoza, J. M., Chacon-Madrigal, E., Alvarado-Rodríguez, O., & Dellinger, A. S. (2021). The predictive power of pollination syndromes: Passerine pollination in heterantherous Meriania macrophylla (Benth.) Triana (Melastomataceae). Ecology and Evolution, 11(20), 13668-13677. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8140
Mayer, V. E., de Hoog, S., Cristescu, S. M., Vera, L., & Prenafeta-Boldú, F. X. (2021). Volatile Organic Compounds in the Azteca/Cecropia Ant-Plant Symbiosis and the Role of Black Fungi. Journal of Fungi, 7(10), [836]. doi.org/10.3390/jof7100836
Leme, F. M., Staedler, Y. M., Schönenberger, J., & Teixeira, S. P. (2021). Floral morphogenesis of Celtis species: implications for breeding system and reduced floral structure. American Journal of Botany: the journal for all plant biologists, 108(9), 1595-1611. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1724
Xafis, A., Mayda, S., Alçiçek, C. M., Kaya, T., Halaçlar, K., Grimsson, F., & Nagel, D. (2021). Large giraffids (Mammalia, Ruminantia) from the new late Miocene fossiliferous locality of Kemiklitepe-E (Western Anatolia, Turkey). Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 101(3), 853–867. doi.org/10.1007/s12549-020-00433-4
Schindler, F., Fragner, L., Herpell, J. B., Berger, A., Brenner, M., Tischler, S., Bellaire, A., Schoenenberger, J., Li, W., Sun, X., Schinnerl, J., Brecker, L., & Weckwerth, W. (2021). Dissecting Metabolism of Leaf Nodules in Ardisia crenata and Psychotria punctata. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 8, [683671]. doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2021.683671
Bochorny, T., Bacci, L. F., Dellinger, A. S., Michelangeli, F. A., Goldenberg, R., & Brito, V. L. G. (2021). Connective appendages in Huberia bradeana (Melastomataceae) affect pollen release during buzz pollination. Plant Biology, 23(4), 556-563. doi.org/10.1111/plb.13244
Dellinger, A. S., Pérez-Barrales, R., Michelangeli, F. A., Penneys, D. S., Fernández-Fernández, D. M., & Schönenberger, J. (2021). Low bee visitation rates explain pollinator shifts to vertebrates in tropical mountains. New Phytologist, 231(2), 864-877. doi.org/10.1111/nph.17390