Project Grant 2211767

This $287,115 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will fund research on continent-wide forest recruitment change and its interactions with climate, habitat, and consumers in North America. The University of California, Merced will conduct the research from September 2022 through August 2026. Key products include quantifying current trends in tree seed production, seedling establishment, and recruitment rates across climate and habitat gradients. Researchers will link these stages to climate and habitat variables and vertebrate seed and nut consumers using extensive gradient sampling. Predictive vertebrate modeling of activity incorporating camera trap, live trapping, and bird point count data will assess relationships between tree recruitment and vertebrate activity. Findings will identify tree species limited by recruitment stage and location, quantify the vertebrate relationship, and evaluate predictive distribution changes accounting for climate-vertebrate interactions. Results seek to improve understanding of food web implications of environmental change.