Stephen Keller
University of Vermont, VT·Ecology & Evolution
Mountaintops in the northeastern United States host small, isolated patches of Arctic and alpine plants above the treeline. These communities may have persisted since glaciers retreated about 13,000 years ago, through natural climate swings and a century of human-caused warming.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Plant Science & Agriculture
Genetics
- Topics
alpine plants
Arctic-alpine ecosystems
biodiversity
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2027
What they work on
- Reconstruct about 13,000 years of alpine plant community history at the species level using ancient DNA from lake sediment cores in the Adirondacks, Green and White Mountains, and Katahdin.
- Estimate alpine plant species turnover over the last century by comparing modern field surveys of Northeast mountaintop flora with historic survey records.
- Determine the relative roles of microrefugia, phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in six focal alpine species, using common gardens, microclimate sensors, functional traits and coalescent modeling of genomic data.
- Build predictive models of alpine biodiversity change, test them against known past dynamics, and share them with regional managers through an AI-powered decision app.
More about the research
How do such small, isolated populations survive climate change? The plants might adapt quickly, they might shelter in cool bedrock crevices, or species might disappear and return over time. The answers matter for protecting these heavily hiked peaks and rare isolated species elsewhere.
Why it matters
Land managers protecting Northeast alpine plants face climate change, trampling and overuse. Models tested against thousands of years of past change, delivered through an app, could help them decide how to steward these sites. The insights into how small, isolated populations persist may also inform conservation of rare species facing climate change elsewhere.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
University of Vermont: 16 labs on PI Pages, $246M a year on research, 76 research doctorates a year.
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