The Lab just obtained funding from the W. M. Keck Foundation new Bridge Funding Initiative, to study Resurrection ecology and the limits of freshwater organisms to persist under extreme climates.

The grant will fund Ph.D. student Jasmine Rios, who is leading experiments to understand how dormant eggs of invertebrates, and plant seeds, accumulate in the sediment of vernal pools. These egg banks allow fairy shrimp and other vernal pool specialists to disperse across space (via wind, birds, or floods) and through time, emerging years or even decades later when conditions permit.

What are the limits of seedbank viability? Is increased hydroclimatic variability eroding the benefits of bet hedging strategies? Stay tuned!