Our work is broken up into five subprojects, which are described in the pages linked below.
The data and analyses generated by the Adaptive Traits Subproject will improve our understanding of how plant functional traits evolve, how these traits relate to ecological success in different habitats, and how phylogeny, genome sizes, functional traits, and changes in habitats, landscapes, and climates contribute to species persistence and invasion and thus the assembly (and disassembly) of plant communities generally.
In the Phylogeny/DNA Barcoding Subproject, we will derive a phylogeny for most of the native and introduced vascular plants of Wisconsin.
Analyses of genome size and genetic variation within and among populations in a subset of species will allow us to infer how patterns of local and regional variation are related to dispersal traits, geographic range, recent habitat fragmentation, and colonization/extinction dynamics. The Flow Cytometry Subproject will give us rapid estimates of overall genome size, i.e., the total amount of DNA per cell. And the RADseq Subproject will to generate data on the population-level genetics of an overlapping set of species.
Climate Change Subproject: Finally, using unusually fine-scale geographic data on past and projected future changes in climate, we will model how native and exotic species’ ranges and abundances have responded, and are likely to respond, to changing climates.