Matthew Austin

• Ph.D.
• Curator of Biodiversity Data at Missouri Botanical Garden

Changes to flowering phenology are a key response of plants to climate change. However, we know little about how these changes alter temporal patterns of reproductive overlap (i.e. phenological reassembly). We combined long‐term field (1937–2012) and herbarium records (1850–2017) of 68 species in a flowering plant community in central North America...

Engaging students in research is increasingly recognized as a valuable pedagogical tool that can augment student learning outcomes. Here, we present an original activity that utilizes research as pedagogy to teach upper-division college students about phenological responses to climate change. By studying phenological responses in multiple species,...

Premise: Although changes in plant phenology are largely attributed to changes in climate, the roles of other factors, such as genetic constraints, competition, and self-compatibility, are underexplored. Methods: We compiled >900 herbarium records spanning 117 years for all 8 nominal species of the winter-annual genus Leavenworthia (Brassicaceae...

Environmental effects on learning are well known, such as cognition that is mediated by nutritional consumption. Less known is how seasonally variable environments affect phenological trajectories of learning. Here, we test the hypothesis that nutritional availability affects seasonal trajectories of population-level learning in species with develo...

Premise: Although the balance between cross‐and self‐fertilization is driven by the environment, no long‐term study has documented whether anthropogenic climate change is affecting reproductive strategy allocation in species with mixed mating systems. Here, we test whether the common blue violet (Viola sororia; Violaceae) has altered relative allo...

Environmental heterogeneity resulting from human-modified landscapes can increase intraspecific trait variation. However, less known is whether such phenotypic variation is driven by plastic or adaptive responses to local environments. Here, we study five bumble bee (Apidae: Bombus) species across an urban gradient in the greater Saint Louis, Misso...

Sex-specific cognitive abilities are well documented. These can occur when sexes engage in different ecological contexts. Less known is whether different ecological contexts can also drive sex-specific participation rates in behavioral tests. Here, we explore this question in bumble bees, a group of eusocial insects where worker females and males e...

Pollinators are considered a major selective force in shaping the diversification of angiosperms. It has been hypothesized that convergent evolution of floral form has resulted in “pollination syndromes” - i.e. suites of floral traits that correspond to attraction of particular pollinator functional groups. Across the literature, the pollination sy...

Population declines have been documented in approximately one-third of bumble bee species. Certain drivers of these declines are known; however, less is known about the interspecific trait differences that make certain species more susceptible to decline. Two traits that have implications for responding to rapidly changed environments may be partic...

Animals have evolved in complex, heterogeneous environments. Thus, decision-making behavior is likely affected by a diversity of co-occurring community-level traits. Here, we investigate how 3 co-occurring traits of floral communities-the number of flower types, reliability that flowers are associated with a reward, and signal complexity of flowers...

Theoretical treatments of the evolution of learning have a long and rich history, and although many aspects remain unresolved, the consensus is that the predictability and timescale of environmental change play a crucial role in when learning evolves. Directly testing these ideas has proven difficult because comparative experiments must assume many...