David, Jonathan, and collaborators received a Living Earth Seed Grant for Collaborative Research titled “Testing the Role that Biotic Interactions Play in Shaping Elevational-Diversity Gradients: An Ecological Metabolomics Approach”. This project will leverage long-term data from tropical-tree communities collected by The Madidi Project, a large-scale study of plant biodiversity in the Andes Mountains of South America, and provide one of the first macroecological studies of plant-chemical ecology and the role it plays in the origins and maintenance of species diversity in a global biodiversity hotspot. Our ‘Madidi Metabolomics Project’ features a multi-institutional collaboration with Brian Sedio (University of Texas at Austin), Sebastián Tello (Missouri Botanical Garden), Belen Alvestegui (University of Missouri-St. Louis), and Nathan Muchhala (University of Missouri-St. Louis).
Photo: Madidi Project researchers collect plant samples in the Tintaya Plot, Andes Mountains, Bolivia. Left to right: Ivan Jimenez, Sebastian Tello, Serena Acha. Photo credit: Jonathan A. Myers.