Steve Compton
Reader in Entomology
School of Biology
University of Leeds
United Kingdom
Biography
Academician, reader and resercher.
Research Interest
Rainforest regeneration, gene flow in fig trees, insect and plant conservation. My main study system over the years has been fig trees and their associated animals, particularly the fig wasps that pollinate them. This has taken me to the Namib Desert (to study long distance pollen flow) to the volcanic island of Anak Krakatoa in Indonesia (to study how rainforest recolonisation is speeded up by the animals that feed on figs and disperse seeds) and to Hyde Park in Leeds, where our 'captive' population of fig trees and fig wasps is the only such facility world wide.
Publications
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Ahmed S, Compton SG, Butlin RK, Gilmartin PM (2009) Wind-borne insects mediate directional pollen transfer between desert fig trees 160 kilometers apart P NATL ACAD SCI USA 106: 20342-20347.
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Eichhorn MP, Nilus R, Compton SG, Hartley SE, Burslem (2010)DFRP Herbivory of tropical rain forest tree seedlings correlates with future mortality ECOLOGY 91: 1092-1101.
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Compton SG, Ball AD, Collinson ME, Hayes P, Rasnitsyn AP et al.,(2010) Ancient fig wasps indicate at least 34 Myr of stasis in their mutualism with fig trees BIOL LETTERS 6: 838-842.
