EVOLUTIONARY DRIVERS OF INVASION IN DITTRICHIA GRAVEOLENS, A HIGH-RISK NOXIOUS WEED

Our overarching goal in the proposed project is to understand the evolutionary drivers of the invasion of Dittrichia graveolens in California, in order to predict how the invasion will spread and its impact on California's natural and agricultural ecosystems.We have three specific objectives:1. To identify the history and genomic consequences of spread in a novel weed across replicated invasion fronts.2. To evaluate evolution in response to the colonization process, abiotic drivers, and biotic drivers.3. To explore how evolutionary changes will affect invasion risk, invasion rate, and impact.