Understanding Climate Changes
Bio professor Pamela Templer got a grant to study winter climate and the forest ecosystem.
Pamela Templer, a College of Arts and Sciences assistant professor of biology, recently received a junior faculty research grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The private philanthropic institution awards grants in six program areas to new faculty beginning their first tenure-track positions. Templer’s $300,000 grant will fund the costs of research and postdoctoral or student researchers.
Templer will research the Northeast winter climate’s year-to-year variation and the general trend toward warmer temperatures to determine what effects the dormant season has on a forest ecosystem’s ability to take in nutrients and to retain nitrogen.
“It is possible that the winter climate and the timing of spring freeze/thaw events have an indirect effect on plant nutrient dynamics during the growing season,” Templer wrote in her proposal. “Results of our study could help to further understand controls on forest nitrogen retention.”
Templer is looking forward to beginning her study. “I have studied the northeastern forest for 10 years,” she says, “and I have always worked during the summer.”
Kathleen Dowling can be reached at dowlingk@bu.edu.