Dr. Matt Forister
Assistant Professor
Specialization, speciation, insect ecology and phylogeography

University of San Francisco, CA
Bachelor of Arts 1995

University of California, Davis
Ph.D Ecology 2004

Research Interests

I am interested in the evolution of ecological interactions, and the role of ecology in speciation. More specifically, work in my lab is focused on shifts in resource use by animals. We want to understand the genetic and ecological factors that either constrain or promote the adoption of novel food resources. Herbivorous insects provide useful systems for studying shifts in resource use. The parasitic relationship between herbivorous insects and their host plants is dynamic (we can study contemporary shifts in host plant use) and changes in host plant use often have long-lasting consequences for terrestrial diversity (as insect populations become reproductively isolated on novel host plants). I am also generally interested in the ecology of plant-animal interactions, as well as the ecology and evolutionary history of Great Basin plants and animals in particular.

Current projects in my lab include the following:

1) Demographic and genetic constraints on local adaptation. Using host shifts from native legumes to alfalfa by herbivorous insects, we will be comparing the relative importance of genetic architecture and gene flow on the process of adapting to a novel resource.

2) Use of anthropogenic habitat (cultivated alfalfa fields) by native animals in the Great Basin. We are studying insect communities in alfalfa fields and surrounding native habitats.

3) We are investigating the genetic history of a number of Great Basin plants and animals. From a historical, genetic perspective, this is a relatively poorly studied part of North America.

4) In collaboration with researchers at other universities, we use the butterfly genus Lycaeides to explore a number of issues in speciation, particularly the ecology of reproductive isolation and the genetic architecture of hybrid speciation.

Contact Information

University of Nevada, Reno
Department of Biology, Mailstop 314
Reno, NV 89557

mforister@unr.edu

Phone:  775-784-6770
Fax:      775-784-1302 

Dr. Forister's Homepage

Selected Publications

Forister, M. L., Nice, C. C., Fordyce, J. A., Gompert, Z., and Shapiro, A. M. (2008) Considering evolutionary processes in the use of single-locus genetic data for conservation, with examples from the Lepidoptera. Journal of Insect Conservation 12:37-51.

Forister, M. L., Ehmer, A.G., and Futuyma, D. J. (2007) The genetic architecture of a niche: patterns of variation and covariation in host use traits in the Colorado potato beetle. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20:985-996.

Gompert, Z., Fordyce, J.A., Forister, M.L., Shapiro, A.M., and Nice, C.C. (2006) Homoploid hybrid speciation in an extreme habitat. Science 314: 1923-1925.

Thorne, J. H., O’Brien, J., Forister, M. L., and Shapiro, A. M. (2006) Building phenological models from presence/absence data for a butterfly fauna. Ecological Applications 16: 1842-1853.

Forister, M. L., Fordyce, J. A., Nice, C. C, Gompert, Z., and Shapiro, A. M. (2006) Egg morphology varies among populations and habitats along a suture zone in the Lycaeides idas-melissa species complex (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) Annals of the Entomological Society of America 99: 933-937.

Gompert, Z., Nice, C. C., Fordyce, J. A., Forister, M. L., and Shapiro, A. M. (2006) Identifying units for conservation using molecular taxonomy: The cautionary tale of the Karner Blue Butterfly. Molecular Ecology 15: 1759-1768.

Forister, M. L. (2005) Independent inheritance of preference and performance in hybrids between host races of Mitoura butterflies. Evolution 59: 1149-1155.

Forister, M. L. (2005) The influence of host plant phenology on Mitoura nelsoni Boisduval (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 98: 295-301.

Leger, E. A., and Forister, M. L. (2005) Increased herbivore resistance in invasive populations of the California poppy (Eschsholzia californica). Diversity and Distributions 11: 311-317.

Forister, M. L., Fordyce, J. A., and Shapiro, A. M. (2004) Geological barriers and restricted gene flow in the holarctic skipper Hesperia comma (Hesperiidae). Molecular Ecology 13: 3489-3499.

Forister, M. L. (2004) Oviposition preference and larval performance within a diverging lineage of Lycaenid butterflies. Ecological Entomology 29: 264-272.

Forister, M. L., and Shapiro, A. M. (2003) Climatic trends and advancing spring flight of butterflies in lowland California. Global Change Biology 9: 1130-1135.