Project Grant 2326021

The University of Vermont & State Agricultural College (UVM) received a $298,981 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074). The grant will fund a collaborative research project to investigate how alpine plant communities in the Northeastern United States have responded to climate change over the past 13,000 years. Through a multi-faceted approach integrating paleoecology, community ecology, population genomics, and other disciplines, the research team will characterize the assembly and persistence of these unique ecosystems. Key project activities include analyzing ancient plant DNA from sediment cores, conducting modern plant surveys, and using common garden experiments and modeling to understand the relative roles of climate refugia, adaptation, and other factors in driving biodiversity changes. The research findings will inform predictive models to support regional managers in stewarding these fragile alpine plant communities as they face ongoing climate change threats. The project will run from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2027.