NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2010

Glennon Kelsey, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2010. The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled "Comparing shifts in plant distributions following climate change and effects on pollinator interactions using a niche modeling approach" for Kelsey Glennon. The host institution for this research is Syracuse University, and the sponsoring scientist is Kari Segraves. Whole genome duplication (i.e. polyploidy) is often responsible for evolution, diversity and range expansion in a variety of plants. As the Earth's climate changes, the current distributions of plant species will likely change, and polyploid plant species may be especially affected. Plants also form the basis of many species interaction networks and changes in plant distributions can have cascading effects on entire communities. To date, little is known about how polyploidy influences interactions between plants and pollinators. This project uses an intensive modeling approach with comparative statistical methods to test whether shifts in polyploid plant distributions will result from future climate change and how those shifts in distribution may influence interactions with associated pollinator communities. The training objectives of this fellowship include developing skills associated with geographic information system (GIS) modeling, computational biology and statistics. Broader impacts include mentoring and outreach, specifically women undergraduates in science by participating in Syracuse University's Women in Science and Engineering-Future Professoriate Program (WiSE-FPP). Furthermore, as many agricultural plants are polyploid, understanding how polyploids respond to climate change will provide pertinent information for future farming practices and agricultural research.