A team of collaborators and I have been awarded a 5-year $2.5 million National Science Foundation research grant. This grant is funded through the Macrosystems program and Ecosystems Directorate. The grant is titled “On thin ice- implications of shorter winters for the future of freshwater phytoplankton phenology and function,” and is nicknamed the “Thin Ice Project.” We aim to explore how warming temperatures and shorter winters from climate change can affect the growth and toxicity of lake algae. My collaborators for the Thin Ice Project are Dr. Rebecca North (University of Missouri [link]), Dr. Mindy Morales (University of Vermont [link]), Dr. Meredith Holgerson (Cornell University [link]), and Dr. Bella Oleksy (University of Colorado Boulder [link]). We will sample lake phytoplankton (algae) across the country to see what will happen to the future of lakes, especially in understudied winter. See the figure below for locations of our study lakes and collaborators. Note the average winter temperature – we predict that the colors will shift north with climate change affecting the local ecosystems.
Here is a great article about our grant and the importance of the research through the Columbia Missourian [link].
Here is an another article about our research from Fondriest’s Environmental Monitor [link]. They are a company that we purchase many environmental sensors from.
Read more about the grant through the SUNY New Paltz press release [link], Missouri University press release [link], or the National Science Foundation page for the grant [link].