Benjamin Adroit

Unido: 28.oct.2022 Última actividad: 07.feb.2024 iNaturalist Sweden

Hey everyone,
I'm Phd in Paleoecology and Environmental sciences from the University of Bonn (Germany) and Montpellier (France).
I'm right now working at the National Museum of Natural History of Sweden in Stockholm.
For now I'm mostly worked on plant-insect interactions that we can observe on fossil leaves. I'm currently working on changes to Mediterranean ecosystems (in the Mediterranean basin currently).
Due to the limitations of fossil records regarding plant-insect interactions, I decided to delve deeper into modern leaves. It is crucial that the method* used in paleoecology - to identify insect feeding traces - has to be "calibrated" on modern leaf records. This will increase our knowledge and enable constructive ecological conversations.
The past two decades of paleo-studies have highlighted the potential and richness of information that can be observed on fossil leaves in terms of plant-insect interactions. Now, these information must be related to modern ecological knowledge by developing studies between paleo and modern. That is my goal today.

-> I'm here because I want to highlight observations that I do in my different fieldwork and provide as many as possible of interesting data. I'm convinced that such exchanges and shares of information can bring to amazing work and even collaborations.
-> I'm also here because even if I can see, recognize, "identify" plant-insect interactions on leaves, I still cannot named them, and I'm quite limited in terms of entomology knowledges that could explain the reasons of the presence of a gall on a plant species and/or a specific location.
I hope I can work and discuss with you.

Here is my global leitmotif:
Ecosystems are defined by the community of living organisms and the way they interact with each other and with their environment. Insects and plants are key taxa in terrestrial ecosystems and their networks determine the trophic structure of environments. However, the factors that determine these interactions are not well understood. My research focuses on the use of plant-insect interactions as an indicator of ecosystem changes over time. I observe the traces of herbivory directly on fossil and modern leaves using various methods based on damage morphology, leaf anatomy, their chemical signatures, etc.

*Method for plant-insect interactions identification in the fossil record:
Labandeira CC, Wilf P, Johnson KR, Marsh F. 2007. Guide to Insect (and Other) Damage Types on
Compressed Plant Fossils.Washington, DC: Smithsonian Inst. Version 3.0—Spring 2007

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