James Rodger (Postdoctoral fellow, Stellenbosch University)
Host: Prof. Cang Hui (Stellenbosch University)
Biography
James Rodger grew up in Johannesburg, where he completed his BSc and BSc Honours degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand. He moved to Pietermaritzburg, where he completed his PhD in Botany, and has since been a postdoc in Uppsala in Sweden, Lausanne in Switzerland and Stellenbosch in South Africa. He loves getting to grips with how nature works, devising novel experimental and analytical approaches to test hypotheses, and hunting for the words to communicate scientific ideas. He spends his spare time botanising, trailrunning, hiking, swing dancing, reading and listening to music.
Research
James researches the ecology and evolution of plant reproduction. His PhD focused on the role of self-fertilisation in the invasion of the lily, Lilium formosanum. His current projects include assessing the contribution of animal pollinators to reproduction in wild plants globally, the contribution of pollen dispersal distance to spread rate in invasive plants (through former MSc student Tremaine Robertson) and the effect of pollination success on extinction risk in plants. He is especially interested in how pollination success declines as the density or population size of plants decreases (pollen limitation Allee effects) and how this effect is mitigated by self-fertilisation.
Contact
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net
Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=cua6rEQAAAAJ&hl=en
Personal Website:https://rodgerjg.wixsite.com/james-rodger
Selected Publications
Bennett, J.M., Steets, J.A., Burns, J.H., Durka, W., Vamosi, J.C., Arceo-Gómez, G., Burd, M., Burkle, L.A., Ellis, A.G., Freitas, L., Li, J., Rodger, J.G ., Wolowski, M., Xia, J., Ashman, T-L. & Knight, T.M. (2018). GloPL, a global data base on pollen limitation of plant reproduction. Scientific Data, 5 180249.
Rodger, J.G., Landi, P. & Hui, C. (2018). Heterogeneity in local density allows a positive evolutionary relationship between self-fertilisation and dispersal. Evolution, 72: 1784-1800.
Rodger, J.G. & Ellis, A.G. (2016). Distinct effects of pollinator-dependence and self-incompatibility on pollen limitation in South African biodiversity hotspots. Biology Letters, 12: 20160253.
Rodger, J.G., van Kleunen, M. & Johnson, S.D. (2013). Pollinators, mates and Allee effects: the importance of self-pollination for fecundity in an invasive lily. Functional Ecology, 27: 1023-1033.
Rodger, J.G., van Kleunen, M. & Johnson, S.D. (2010). Does specialized pollination impede plant invasions? International Journal of Plant Sciences, 171:382-391.