{"id":10,"date":"2026-07-13T09:48:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T13:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/?page_id=10"},"modified":"2026-07-13T10:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:32:54","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"RESEARCH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We study how ecological interactions and environmental variation shape the evolution of plant traits. Working on microevolutionary scales, we focus especially on flowers, pollination, life-history variation, and mating systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read about some of our work below. For a full list of publications, navigate to our Publications<\/a> page. Want to learn more? Feel free to reach out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Floral Longevity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The lifespan of individual flowers varies substantially across species. We investigate the ecological and evolutionary forces shaping floral longevity within species, including plant-pollinator interactions, resource availability, environmental stress, and trade-offs with other floral traits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spigler, R.B. and Ostrowski, S. (2026), Pollination context and abiotic stress reshape variation in floral longevity and its exposure to selection. New Phytol, 251: 1524-1537. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/nph.71130<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spigler, R.B. and Woodard, A.J. (2019), Context-dependency of resource allocation trade-offs highlights constraints to the evolution of floral longevity in a monocarpic herb. New Phytol, 221: 2298-2307. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/nph.15498<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Plant reproduction in a fragmented world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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We study how habitat fragmentation and land use shape plant reproductive success, mating patterns, and population connectivity through field studies, population genetics, and landscape genetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emel, S.L., Wang, S., Metz, R.P. and Spigler, R.B., 2021. Type and intensity of surrounding human land use, not local environment, shape genetic structure of a native grassland plant. Molecular Ecology<\/em>, 30<\/em>(3), pp.639-655. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/mec.15753<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spigler, R.B., 2018. Small and surrounded: population size and land use intensity interact to determine reliance on autonomous selfing in a monocarpic plant. Annals of botany<\/em>, 121<\/em>(3), pp.513-524. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/aob\/mcx184<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spigler, R.B., Theodorou, K. and Chang, S.M., 2017. Inbreeding depression and drift load in small populations at demographic disequilibrium. Evolution<\/em>, 71<\/em>(1), pp.81-94. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/evo.13103<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spigler, R.B., Hamrick, J.L. and Chang, S.M., 2010. Increased inbreeding but not homozygosity in small populations of Sabatia angularis (Gentianaceae). Plant Systematics and Evolution<\/em>, 284<\/em>(3), pp.131-140. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s00606-009-0245-x<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Plant evolutionary demography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We investigate how ecological and genetic processes shape population persistence and evolutionary responses to environmental change. Recent & ongoing work examines how seed banks influence evolutionary rescue and how density dependence alters the expression and consequences of inbreeding depression. We combine modeling with field studies and greenhouse experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godineau, C., Theodorou, K. and Spigler, R.B., 2024. Effect of the seed bank on evolutionary rescue in small populations: univariate and multivariate demo-genetic dynamics. The American Naturalist<\/em>, 204(3), pp.221-241. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1086\/731402<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walker, M.J. and Spigler, R.B., 2024. Experimental evidence of inbreeding depression for competitive ability and its population-level consequences in a mixed-mating plant. Frontiers in Plant Science<\/em>, 15<\/em>, p.1398060. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpls.2024.1398060<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We study how ecological interactions and environmental variation shape the evolution of plant traits. Working on microevolutionary scales, we focus especially on flowers, pollination, life-history variation, and mating systems. Read about some of our work below. For a full list of publications, navigate to our Publications page. Want to learn more? Feel free to reach… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4089,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"default","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}