| Academic Year | 2024-2025 |
| s.castanosirosi.24@abdn.ac.uk | |
| Institution | University of Aberdeen |
Biography
School: School of Biological Sciences
Pronouns: he/him
Name pronunciation: Sahn-tee-ah-goh Kas-ta-nyo Si-ro-si
Project: Hummingbirds, Flowerpiercers and Insects – Pollinators or Nectar Robbers?
Supervisors: Prof Justin Travis, Dr Isabella Capellini, Dr Francisco Perez-Reche, Prof Cecile Gubry-Rangin, Dr Fabio Manfredini & Prof Georgios Leontidis
Undergraduate Education: BSc Biology, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
Postgraduate Education: N/A
Research: In the high Andes of northern South America, the treeline of elfin forests rises to about 3,000 meters above sea level, transitioning into wet open ecosystems known as “páramos”. These ecosystems are a hotspot for biodiversity on Earth, with high endemism due to their geological and evolutionary history (60% of the >3,400 páramo plant species are endemic). “Páramos” are globally important for their vital role in carbon sequestration and their provision of water at regional and continental scales (for example, >85% of Colombia and Ecuador’s drinking water comes from páramos). High-Andean ecosystems have been at risk since pre-Columbian times and colonial cities were built in the mountains to benefit from the fertile soils and climate better suited to agriculture. Currently, connectivity between high-mountain ecosystems is low; land encroachment and degradation still continue as a result of mining; and expansion of agricultural frontiers and damming also still continues as well.
In this project, we will focus on a major, but poorly understood, element of this, and other, ecosystems: The flower – flower visitor interactions: how interactions between different flower-visitors shaped the floral traits crucial for flower attractiveness, how interactions between different flower-visitors define the flower – flower visitor network, and what the consequences of this visitation network are for flower fitness and for spatio-temporal dynamics. This is crucial, because most plant populations depend on pollinators to gain genetic diversity and to produce high quality fruits for their dispersion across the landscape, for that reason is important to understand how plants sexually reproduce, because that is one of the factors that can determine the health of the environment they are supporting and the wellbeing of the animals that live there.
Pollination by birds and insects are the main drivers of diversification of angiosperms in the world. For instance, in the Bromeliaceae family, at least half of its 3600 species are hummingbird pollinated. This made this clade of non-woody plants one of the most species rich in the Neotropics and also one with the greatest adaptive radiations among the angiosperms. For that reason, the project that I will develop is about deciphering the role of hummingbirds, flowerpiercers and insects in the pollination of flowering plants in the high Andean “páramo” ecosystem in Colombia. Its purpose is the development of new knowledge about the poorly known plant-animal interaction dynamics in the Colombian Andes, this would increase our understanding about the evolution of complex pollination mechanisms that have led to high plant and animal endemism in this unique ecosystem. This will be very useful to guide further management actions in the protection and conservation of these territories.
Other:
- Additional email: scastanos@unal.edu.co
- Instagram for scientific divulgation trough photography: @santi.castano.s
