Ass.-Prof. Agnes Dellinger, BSc MSc PhD
Tenure Track Professor
3. floor, room 315
t: +43 (0)1 4277-540 60
m: agnes.dellinger@univie.ac.at
© Erich Kucs
Media contributions
- scilog-Article Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (german):
Wie Tropenpflanzen zu ihren Bestäubern finden – 18. October 2023 - Online-Article mediaportal University of Vienna (german):
ERC Starting Grant für Agnes Dellinger – 5. September 2023 - Online-Article mediaportal University of Vienna (german):
"How flowers adapt to their pollinators" – 5. December 2019
Research interests
- Buzz-pollination and pollinator shifts
- Flower evolution and flower diversity
- Diversification and macroevolutionary modelling
- Plant-animal-environment interactions and population differentiation
My research is centered on exploring how biotic interaction processes such as plant-pollinator interactions change across variable environmental contexts (i.e., altitudinal gradients) and affect plant macro- and microevolution. Within this framework, I am particularly interested in understanding how flowers evolve and function, and when (i.e., under which abiotic and biotic environmental contexts?) and how (i.e., which traits?) they diversify. I am mostly working on the large (>5,800 spp.), pantropical plant family Melastomataceae, and spend much time conducting fieldwork with colleagues in the Latin American tropics. To answer my questions, I use a combination of experimental field and labwork, observations, phylogenomics, comparative morphological and phylogenetic analyses and statistical modelling.
After my postdoc at the University of Colorado Boulder working with Stacey Smith, I have recently returned to the University of Vienna to start my own lab. Check out my lab's website if you want to know more about our work!
Projects
- Mount buzz (ERC-Grant)
- Flower biomechanics and the buzz-pollination niche (FWF-Project P 36766-B)
- Modelling abiotic and biotic drivers of a plant radiation (Firnberg-Programm Project T 1186-B)
Teaching
Curriculum Vitae
Current position
- 2023/3– Tenure Track Professor
Education and scientific career
- 2021/6–2023/2 Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Colorado Boulder, USA, FWF-Project T 1186-B
- 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
Publications
2024
Barreto, E., Boehm, M. M. A., Ogutcen, E., Abrahamczyk, S., Kessler, M., Bascompte, J., Dellinger, A. S., Bello, C., Dehling, D. M., Duchenne, F., Kaehler, M., Lagomarsino, L. P., Lohmann, L. G., Maglianesi, M. A., Morlon, H., Muchhala, N., Ornelas, J. F., Perret, M., Salinas, N. R., ... Graham, C. H. (2024). Macroevolution of the plant–hummingbird pollination system. Biological Reviews, 99(5), 1831-1847. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13094
Kopper, C., Schönenberger, J., & Dellinger, A. S. (2024). High floral disparity without pollinator shifts in buzz-bee-pollinated Melastomataceae. New Phytologist, 242(5), 2322-2337. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19735
Reginato, M., Ordónez-Parra, C. A., Messeder, J. V. S., Brito, V. L. G., Dellinger, A., Kriebel, R., Marra, C., Melo, L., Cornelissen, T., Fuzessy, L., Sperotto, P., Calderón-Hernández, M., Guerra, T. J., Kopper, C., Mancipe-Murillo, C., Pizo, M. A., Posada-Herrera, J. M., Hasui, É., Silva, W. R., & Silveira, F. A. O. (2024). MelastomaTRAITs 1.0: A database of functional traits in Melastomataceae, a large pantropical angiosperm family. Ecology, 105(6), Article e4308. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4308
Dellinger, A. S., Lagomarsino, L., Michelangeli, F., Dullinger, S., & Smith, S. D. (2024). The Sequential Direct and Indirect Effects of Mountain Uplift, Climatic Niche, and Floral Trait Evolution on Diversification Dynamics in an Andean Plant Clade. Systematic Biology, 73(3), 594-612. Article syae011. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syae011
2023
Dellinger, A. S., Hamilton, A. M., Wessinger, C. A., & Smith, S. (2023). Opposing patterns of altitude-driven pollinator turnover in the tropical and temperate Americas. The American Naturalist: a bi-monthly journal devoted to the advancement and correlation of the biological sciences, 202(2), 152-165. https://doi.org/10.1086/725017
Opedal, Ø. H., Pérez-Barrales, R., Brito, V. L. G., Muchhala, N., Capó, M., & Dellinger, A. (2023). Pollen as the link between floral phenotype and fitness. American journal of botany, 110(6), Article e16200. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16200
Dellinger, A. S., Hanusch, D., Oswald, M., Fernández-Fernández, D., & Schönenberger, J. (2023). Using geometric morphometrics to determine the “fittest” floral shape: A case study in large-flowered, buzz-pollinated Meriania hernandoi. American journal of botany, 110(6), Article e16183. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16183
Tenhumberg, B., Dellinger, A., & Smith, S. D. (2023). Modelling pollinator and nonpollinator selection on flower colour variation. Journal of Ecology, 111(4), 746-760. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14057
Kopper, C., Schönenberger, J., & Dellinger, A. (2023). Pollination syndromes in Melastomataceae: pollinator shifts and species richness explain patterns of disparity in an ancestrally buzz-bee pollinated family. In SCAPE 2023 - Abstract Book Article T28
2022
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. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16403
Michelangeli, F. A., Dellinger, A., Goldenberg, R., Almeda, F., Mendoza-Cifuentes, H., Fernández-Fernández, D. M., Ulloa Ulloa, C., & Penneys, D. S. (2022). Phylogenetics and taxonomy of the Tribe Merianieae. In R. Goldenberg, F. A. Michelangeli, & F. Almeda (Eds.), Systematics, Evolution and Ecology of Melastomataceae (pp. 255-273). Springer International Publishing Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99742-7_11
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. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99742-7_26
2021
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. https://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. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8140
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. https://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. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17390
Kanduth, L., Chartier, M., Schönenberger, J., & Dellinger, A. S. (2021). Red and white clover provide food resources for honeybees and wild bees in urban environments. Nordic Journal of Botany, 39(3), 1-11. Article e03005. https://doi.org/10.1111/njb.03005
2020
Dellinger, A. S. (2020). Pollination syndromes in the 21st century: where do we stand and where may we go? New Phytologist, 228(4), 1193-1213. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16793
Fernández-Fernández, D. M., Jost, L., & Dellinger, A. S. (2020). Two new species of Meriania (Melastomataceae) from eastern Ecuador. Phytotaxa, 458(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.458.1.1
2019
Dellinger, A. S., Artuso, S., Pamperl, S., Michelangeli, F. A., Penneys, D. S., Fernández-Fernández, D. M., Alvear, M., Almeda, F., Armbruster, W. S., Städler, Y., & Schönenberger, J. (2019). Modularity increases rate of floral evolution and adaptive success for functionally specialized pollination systems. Communications Biology, 2(1), Article 453. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0697-7
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)