Carnivorous Plant Research
My PhD - Carnivorous Plant Ecology
Carnivorous plants are well known for their unusual nutritional strategy of capturing and digesting prey with specialised trapping leaves. In my PhD, I explored the nutritional ecology of a wide range of carnivorous plant species using stable isotope techniques. I particularly focused on carnivorous plants with adhesive traps, including Drosophyllum lusitanicum in Mediterranean Europe, and various species of Drosera and Byblis in Western Australia.
During my PhD, I was supported by a Research Training Program stipend, the UWA School of Biological Sciences, Kings Park Science, and the BayCEER Laboratory of Isotope Biogeochemistry at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. My research was supported by grants from the Australian Flora Foundation, Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment, International Carnivorous Plant Society, Kimberley Society, and Friends of Kings Park.
SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Cross AT, van der Ent A, Wickmann M, Skates LM, Sumail S, Gebauer G, Robinson A (2022). Capture of mammal excreta by Nepenthes is an effective heterotrophic nutrition strategy. Annals of Botany doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcac134
Skates LM, Paniw M, Cross AT, Ojeda F, Dixon K, Stevens J and Gebauer G (2019). An ecological perspective on ‘plant carnivory beyond bogs’: nutritional benefits of prey capture for the Mediterranean carnivorous plant Drosophyllum lusitanicum. Annals of Botany doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcz045
Cross A, Skates LM, Adamec L, Hammond MC, Sheridan P and Dixon K (2015). Population ecology of the endangered aquatic carnivorous macrophyte Aldrovanda vesiculosa at a naturalised site in North America. Freshwater Biology doi.org/10.1111/fwb.12609