Floral and pollination biology

• Grant number: 16/09146-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: October 22, 2016
• End date: November 04, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Marlies Sazima
• Grantee: Marlies Sazima
• Visiting researcher: William Scott Armbruster
• Visiting researcher institution: University of Portsmouth, England
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research field of Pollination and Floral Biology starts in Brazil in the XIX century with great names of the evolutionary theory such as Fritz and Hermann Müller and also Charles Darwin. However such research field started the study of natural system in deeper ecological and evolutionary context only in 1950 with the works of Stefan Vogel, Leendert van der Pijl and Knut Faegri. In Brazil, Pollination Biology is re-initiated in 1960 and currently is considered one of the most important research field in many institutions. More recently, some initiatives formalized the organization of a huge and coordinated Brazilian research group with increasing participation on the international scenario. Moreover, in 2014, it occurred the I Brazilian Symposium of Pollination with the majority of national research community as well as many international leaders in this research field. This project was supported by FAPESP (Processo 2014/073870). The great achievement of this event led to the II Brazilian Symposium on Pollination which will be held in Catalão-GO, between 23 and 26 October this year. In 2014, it was also concluded the book "Biologia da Polinização" which can already be considered a milestone in the development of this research field in Brazil for providing a current, specialized and free literature all in Portuguese. Considering all this activities and the increasing number of publications in international journals, including high standard ones like Science and Nature, it is clear that this Brazilian research field is proving to be increasingly important in the international scientific scene. In this context, the frequent presence of great international researchers at the Biosystematics and Pollination Laboratory at Unicamp is an achievement that should not be disregarded. These researchers have contributed to the ongoing projects, always offer excellent courses in the graduate level and participate in national events. In almost one decade of foreign professors visits, we have received great names as Joseph Williams (EUA), Gary Stiles (Colômbia), Leonardo Galetto (Argentina), Klaus Lunau (Alemanha), Santiago Benitez-Vieyra (Argentina), Jeff Ollerton (Inglaterra), Günter Gerlach (Alemanha), Bo Dalsgaard (Dinamarca), Luis Navarro (Espanha), Nick Waser (EUA) and Mary Price (EUA), the majority of them supported by FAPESP. Such fellowship has contributed to the formation of countless pollination biology researchers in Brazil. This year, we intent to invite another great name in the field of Pollination and Floral Biology, the professor W. Scott Armbruster. He is operating since the 1980s in the area and he has been taught in several countries like the United States, Norway and England. Throughout his career, he greatly contributed to the understanding of the evolution of floral structures that interacts with pollinator and received awards in various countries like USA, Spain, England and China. His list of publications includes journals such as Nature, Ecology, Evolution, TREE, Functional Ecology, New Phytologist, among others. In this sense, such visit is well placed at the current Brazilian scientific perspective on Floral Biology and Pollination. Through this project, the professor will offer a course at the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Vegetal. He will also take part of the research and the current discussions at the laboratory since his abilities is directly related to research projects that I supervise. Furthermore, research projects of ex-oriented groups working in other institutions will also benefit from the visit of the researcher. In addition, the visiting professor will also give a master lecture at the II Brazilian Symposium on Pollination. (AU)