Project Grant 2305704

The National Science Foundation awarded a $240,000 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to support a postdoctoral research fellowship exploring the rules of life governing interactions between genomes, environments, and phenotypes. The fellowship will fund integrative research from November 1, 2023 to October 31, 2026 investigating how genetics, environments, and microbiomes contribute to emergent host phenotypes in green frog tadpoles.

Specifically, the fellow will study green frog microbiomes across their geographic range to determine if microbiome composition varies between northern and southern populations in a way that helps frogs thrive under different temperature conditions. Fieldwork will compare water and tadpole microbiomes from ponds along the species' range, exploring drivers of microbial community variation. Laboratory experiments will rear offspring from northern and southern green frog populations in tanks amended with microbes from corresponding northern or southern ponds, measuring thermal performance to assess impacts of environmental microbes on intraspecific variation in frog microbiomes and thermal phenotypes. The research aims to further understanding of factors shaping microbiome composition and impacts on hosts, with implications for predicting wildlife responses to environmental change and aiding amphibian conservation efforts.