Research interests

• Pollination biology, buzz-pollination
• Flower evolution and flower diversity
• Pollinator shifts and diversification
• Mountain ecology
• Population dynamics and population genetics

Pollinator mediated selection has played a major role in shaping the flowering plant diversity we observe on Earth today. The results of pollinator mediated selection become particularly apparent when comparing two closely related species which differ in their pollinators, i.e. which have shifted pollinators (e.g. from bee to hummingbird). Such pollinator shifts lead to divergent floral phenotypes in adaptation to attract, reward and fit with the different pollinators. Drivers of pollinator shifts have rarely been investigated but changes in pollinator quantity (abundance) and quality (efficiency) may be most important.

In my research, I investigate the drivers and consequences of pollinator shifts in the neotropical plant tribe Merianieae (Melastomataceae). Merianieae include around 300 species, are distributed from Brazil to Nicaragua and most diverse in the tropical Andes (Northern Peru, Ecuador, Colombia). During my PhD, I could show that Merianieae are ancestrally buzz-pollinated by bees (ca. 75 % of extant taxa) and have shifted repeatedly to pollination by mixed assemblages of vertebrate pollinators (ca. 10 % of taxa; hummingbirds, bats, rodents, flowerpiercers; Dellinger et al. 2019, American Naturalist) or passerine birds (ca. 15 % of taxa; Dellinger et al. 2014, Current Biology). Merianieae show complex adaptations to these different pollinators in their flower morphology, and in particular in the androecium (Dellinger et al. 2019, New Phytologist).

To answer my research questions, I use multifaceted, interdisciplinary approaches and work both at the macro- and microevolutionary level. My work includes extensive field experiments and plant collecting in the Latin American Andes, phylogenetic comparative methods, morphological and morphometric studies (e.g. Scanning Electron Microscopy, High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography, 3D-flower models, geometric morphometrics) as well as population genomics and niche modelling (Dellinger et al. 2016, New Phytologist).

Projects

Scientific project collaborator  FWF-Project P 30669-B29 "Pollinator shifts and floral Evolution in the Merianieae (Melastomataceae)" (Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jürg Schönenberger)

Project leader Firnberg-Program Project T 1186 "Modelling abiotic and biotic drivers of a plant radiation"

 Teaching

Current Courses

 Curriculum Vitae

Current position

• 2021/6– Associate Researcher

Education and scientific career

• 2020 Gertrud Pleskot Award
• 2019/9–2021/6 University assistant (post doc) FWF-Project P 30669-B29
• 2019 PhD Theses "Pollinator Shifts and Floral Evolution in Merianieae (Melastomataceae)"
• 2017/10–2019/8 University assistant (prae doc) FWF-Project P 30669-B29
• 2015–2017/09 University assistant (prae doc), PhD-student
• 2014 Research associate at the Department for Botany and Biodiversity research (CVL, head: Stefan Dullinger)
• 2010– Master programme in Community and Landscape Ecology (University of Vienna, Austria); 2010/2011 Erasmus exchange, University of Lund, Sweden
• 2007–2010 Bachelor programme in Ecology (University of Vienna, Austria)
• 1999–2007 Secondary School, Klosterneuburg, Austria

Dellinger, A. (2013). Floral Structure and Pollination Biology of Axinaea (Melastomataceae). Master thesis,  Universität Wien, Wien. PDF available at: othes.univie.ac.at/28151/

Dellinger, A., & Berger, A. (2009). Vergesellschaftung, Habitatspezifität und pflanzensoziologische Bewertung der Vorkommen von Trifolium saxatile im Schalftal, Ötztaler Alpen, Tirol. Verh. zool.-bot. Ges., 146, 125-138. (Bachelorarbeit)