Today’s forests face a litany of threats that are being exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change: drought, heat, fires, and pest and pathogen outbreaks.
Today’s forests face a litany of threats that are being exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change: drought, heat, fires, and pest and pathogen outbreaks. Meanwhile, understanding and forecasting the sylvan response to these issues has become trickier than ever.
Fortunately, UC Santa Barbara ecologist Anna Trugman(link is external) is hard at work on this task, an effort that has attracted the attention of her peers. Trugman, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, was awarded the 2021 Tansley Medal from the New Phytologist Foundation. The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to research in plant science by an individual in the early stages of their career. Trugman was selected based on her work developing models to predict how forests may react to environmental stresses.
“I was very excited and humbled,” Trugman said of learning that she had won the medal. “The scholars that have been shortlisted or won it over the years are some of the people I really admire in the field.”
“When we hired Anna, one of her references summarized simply: ‘Anna is a rockstar,’” said department chair Stuart Sweeney. “All of her colleagues share that sentiment. She is blazing a path of cutting-edge research that is having tremendous impact, within and beyond geography, and it is foundational in our understanding of climate change impacts on forests. It is fantastic to see her work getting recognized with the Tansley Medal.”
Read more at: University of California - Santa Barbara
Anna Trugman (Photo Credit: UC Santa Barbara)
