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Phone: (612) 625-5700
Fax: (612) 624-6777
Email: wiggins@umn.edu

University of Minnesota
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
100 Ecology Building
1987 Upper Buford Circle
St. Paul, MN 55108

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Caroline E. Ridley

Postdoctoral Associate

Ph.D., University of California-Riverside, 2008

Contact Information

Phone: 612-624-2273
E-mail: ridle026@umn.edu

Research Interests

Statement

I am interested in the evolutionary processes that affect population persistence and spread in an applied context. My dissertation research focused on hybridization and the evolution of invasiveness in California wild radish (Raphanus sativus) on the western coast of North America. My work showed that interspecific hybridization has stimulated the evolution of a reproductively superior linage of plants that has replaced all populations of the pure parental species. Furthermore, populations of Raphanus have rapidly locally adapted to vastly different inland and coastal climates in California. The ability of the highly genetically diverse hybrid lineage to respond to natural selection may be another possible mechanism to explain the plant's invasive success.

Currently, I am studying the evolutionary consequences of population fragmentation in the native perennial prairie plant, Echinacea angustifolia. Both the spatial distribution and within population genetic diversity of this species have changed radically over the last 150 years, but the consequent impact on factors key to population persistence (like reproduction, recruitment of seedlings, the intensity of inbreeding effects, etc.) is not well understood. Using long-term observational and experimental approaches, we are attempting to put together a comprehensive picture of the genetic, demographic and ecological forces interacting with fragmentation to determine Echinacea's evolutionary fate.

Selected Publications

Ridley, C.E. and N.C. Ellstrand. 2008. Evolution of enhanced reproduction in the hybrid-derived invasive, California wild radish (Raphanus sativus). Biological Invasions (accepted).

Roach, D.A., C.E. Ridley and J. Dudycha. 2008. Aging in Plantago: stress induces age-dependent mortality. Ecology (accepted with revisions).

Ridley, C.E., S.-C. Kim and N.C. Ellstrand. 2008. Bi-directional history of hybridization in California wild radish Raphanus sativus (Brassicaceae) as revealed by chloroplast DNA. American Journal of Botany (in press).

Elam, D.R., C.E. Ridley, K. Goodell and N.C. Ellstrand. 2007. Population size and relatedness affect the fitness of a self-incompatible invasive plant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:549-552.

Campbell, L.G., A.A. Snow and C.E. Ridley. 2006. Weed evolution after crop gene introgression: relative fecundity of advanced-generation hybrids of wild radish (Raphanus spp.). Ecology Letters 11:1-12.

Caruso, C.M., S.B. Peterson and C.E. Ridley. 2003. Natural selection on floral traits of Lobelia (Lobeliaceae): spatial and temporal variation. American Journal of Botany 90:1333-1340.