Project Grant 2413626

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program provides $210,322 to the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. (UGA Research Foundation) to conduct collaborative research on how local adaptation and climatic extremes will shape continental-scale changes in the distribution and abundance of two common tundra plant species under climate change.

The award will fund long-term monitoring of wild populations of Silene acaulis and Polygonum viviparum across western North America, as well as transplant experiments to assess local adaptation to climate and the demographic mechanisms driving it. The researchers will integrate the demographic and experimental data to develop environmentally-explicit, density-dependent models to forecast changes in species distribution and local abundance under future climate scenarios. Additionally, the project will engage middle and high school students by creating curriculum to teach critical thinking and data analysis skills around ecological and environmental questions.