Project Grant 2331276

This $433,928 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program will fund collaborative research by Clemson University to study invasive plant species across the Americas. The research teams will monitor the growth and survival of native and invasive tree saplings across light gradients in 10 locations, including temperate and tropical forests, to test the hypothesis that lower pest loads allow invasive species to circumvent the typical tradeoffs between fast growth and shade tolerance. In a separate experimental component, researchers will remove insects and pathogens from native and invasive saplings to directly test whether pest loads drive differences in shade tolerance. The project aims to build integrative models of plant behavior to further scientific understanding of linkages between plant functional ecology and population dynamics. The research will train 2 doctoral students, 1 postdoctoral scholar, and numerous undergraduates, while also fostering international collaboration and knowledge transfer across the Americas.