I’m a few months late to posting this, but in December I got some exciting news — my first full NSF grant was awarded! Topher Weiss-Lehman (PI) and I are combining experiments, genomics, and theory to investigate how interactions between important ecological (e.g., environmental gradients, competition) and evolutionary (e.g., gene flow, dispersal evolution) processes shape species’ range dynamics and the formation of range limits. Combining range expansion experiments with genomic data will allow us to test key predictions from range limit theory that have been subject to limited empirical investigation. Integrating these experiments with new range limit models will then allow us to test our hypotheses across a wide swath of parameter space and timescales.
We’ll be searching for post-docs, grad students, and undergraduate researchers, so reach out if you’re interested! A few more details in the proposal screenshots below.
John Benning 