Grant in Aid supports drought study @ UMD

Dr. Amanda Grusz, Assistant Professor of Biology at UMN Duluth, has been awarded $29K USD from the University of Minnesota Grant in Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship program to support her research examining the relationship between drought and the evolution of obligate apomixis in plants. These funds will specifically allow members of the Grusz Lab to evaluate whether temperature and humidity are significantly associated with whole genome duplication in natural populations. To this end, Dr. Grusz will be studying plants with a proclivity for this trait—cheilanthoid ferns of southwestern North America.

Notably, the Grant in Aid will provide valuable tools for undergraduate research, facilitating hands-on training in microscopy, cytogenetics, development, and biodiversity studies. Undergraduate researchers in the Grusz Lab will score key morphological characters and observe reproductive development for samples collected along an elevational gradient spanning the Mohave and Sonoran Deserts of Nevada and Arizona, USA.

Additionally, the Grusz Lab will also be exploring microhabitat variation among populations of Pellaea truncata within the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Las Vegas, NV, where digital sensors will be deployed to measure and record temperature and humidity among sites.

Stay posted for more updates on the drought study as it unfurls!