  {"id":684,"date":"2009-10-19T13:02:11","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T17:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?page_id=684"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:52:06","slug":"andrew-simons","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/andrew-simons\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Simons"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"research\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For detailed information, please visit the lab website (link above). &nbsp;My students and I focus on how organisms adapt to changing environments.&nbsp; We use a variety of organisms both in the field and under controlled environments to address fundamental questions about the evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity and bet-hedging traits under fluctuating environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Especially useful as model organisms are monocarpic (i.e. reproduce once per lifetime) plants, such as <em>Lobelia inflata<\/em>; and plants with rapid generation times such as <em>Spirodela polyrhiza<\/em>, a member of the duckweed subfamily (Lemnoideae) which are the smallest flowering plants on the planet. We are concerned, too, with the genetic mechanisms underlying expression of life-history traits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"selected-publications\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Selected&nbsp;Publications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Morris, R.S., M.E. Compton, and<strong> A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2020. Birth order as a source of within-genotype&nbsp;diversification in the clonal duckweed,&nbsp;<em>Spirodela polyrhiza<\/em>&nbsp;(Araceae: Lemnoideae).&nbsp;<em>Biological&nbsp;Journal of the Linnean Society<\/em>&nbsp;(In press).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hitsman, H.W. and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2020. Latitudinal variation in norms of reaction of phenology in&nbsp;the greater duckweed&nbsp;<em>Spirodela polyrhiza<\/em>.&nbsp;<em>Journal of Evolutionary Biology&nbsp;<\/em>33:1405-1416.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wen, L. and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2020. Delusions of grandeur: Seed count is not a good fitness proxy&nbsp;under individual variation in phenology.&nbsp;<em>Journal of Evolutionary Biology<\/em>. 33:1039-1049.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>C\u00f4t\u00e9, K. and<strong> A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2020.&nbsp;Genotype-environment interaction and the maintenance of&nbsp;genetic variation: an empirical study of&nbsp;<em>Lobelia inflata<\/em>&nbsp;(Campanulaceae).&nbsp;<em>Roy. Soc. Open Sci.<\/em>&nbsp;7:191720.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brady, S. P., \u2026,<strong> A.M. Simons<\/strong>&nbsp;et al. 2019. Causes of maladaptation.&nbsp;<em>Evolutionary Applications&nbsp;<\/em>12:1229-1242.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wieren, J.F., and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2019. Prescribed fire increases seedling recruitment in a&nbsp;natural pitch pine (<em>Pinus rigida<\/em>) population at its northern range limit.&nbsp;<em>Natural Areas Journal<\/em>&nbsp;39:308-318.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brady, S. P., \u2026, <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>&nbsp;et al. 2019. Causes of maladaptation.&nbsp;<em>Evolutionary Applications<\/em>&nbsp;12:1229-1242.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mejbel, H.S., and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2018. Aberrant clones: birth order generates life-history diversity&nbsp;in Greater Duckweed,&nbsp;<em>Spirodela polyrhiza<\/em>.&nbsp;<em>Ecology and Evolution&nbsp;<\/em>8:2021-2031.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fukase, J., and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2016. Increased pollinator activity in urban gardens with more native flora.&nbsp;<em>Applied Ecology and Environmental Research<\/em>&nbsp;14:297-310.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hughes, P.W.D., and <strong>A.M. Simons.<\/strong> 2015. Microsatellite evidence for obligate autogamy, but&nbsp;abundant genetic variation in the herbaceous monocarp<em>&nbsp;Lobelia inflata<\/em>.&nbsp;<em>Journal of Evolutionary&nbsp;Biology&nbsp;<\/em>28:2068-2077.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hughes, P.W.D., and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>.&nbsp;2014. Changing reproductive effort within a semelparous&nbsp;reproductive episode.&nbsp;<em>American Journal of Botany<\/em>&nbsp;101:1323-1331.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Graham, J.K., M.L. Smith, and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2014. Experimental evolution of bet hedging under&nbsp;manipulated environmental uncertainty in&nbsp;<em>Neurospora crassa<\/em>.&nbsp;<em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B<\/em>&nbsp;281: 20140706.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Simons, A.M<\/strong>. 2014. Playing smart vs. playing safe: the joint expression of phenotypic plasticity&nbsp;and potential bet hedging across and within thermal environments&nbsp;<em>Journal of Evolutionary Biology<\/em>&nbsp;27:1047-1056.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hughes, P.W.D., and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2014. Secondary reproduction in the herbaceous monocarp&nbsp;Lobelia inflata:&nbsp;time-constrained primary reproduction does not result in increased deferral of&nbsp;reproductive effort.&nbsp;BMC Ecology&nbsp;14:15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hughes, P.W.D., and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2014. The continuum between semelparity and iteroparity:&nbsp;Plastic expression of parity in response to season length manipulation in&nbsp;<em>Lobelia inflata.&nbsp;BMC&nbsp;Evolutionary Biology<\/em>&nbsp;14:90.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hughes, P.W, A.F. Jaworski, C.S. Davis, S.M. Aitken and <strong>A.M. Simons<\/strong>. 2014. Development of&nbsp;polymorphic microsatellite markers for Indian Tobacco&nbsp;<em>Lobelia inflata&nbsp;<\/em>(Campanulaceae)&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Applications in Plant Sciences<\/em>&nbsp;2: 1300096.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Simons, A.M<\/strong>. 2011. Modes of response to environmental change and the elusive empirical evidence for bet hedging. <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B<\/em> 278:1601-1609.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[<a href=\"#top\">top<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6460,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Andrew","cu_people_last_name":"Simons","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[24],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-684","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-faculty"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Professor","cu_people_degree":"B.Sc. (Guelph), M.Sc. 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