Megan DeMarche (formerly Peterson)
​Assistant professor
(she/her)

I joined the Plant Biology department at UGA in spring 2020. Previously, I completed a postdoc at the University of Colorado Boulder and a PhD at UC Santa Cruz. I'm broadly interested in how organisms cope with environmental variability over space and time, and how these lessons can be used to better predict species' responses to anthropogenic climate change. 

Email: megan.peterson2@uga.edu

Riley Thoen
PhD candidate​ 
(he/him)

I am a PhD candidate at UGA interested in the combined effects of habitat fragmentation and climate change on persistence of plant populations. I attended Gustavus Adolphus College and worked as a lab manager in rural western Minnesota; there I studied the effects of tallgrass prairie fragmentation on the ecology and evolution of native plants, and I began to realize the risks which small, isolated plant populations face in a changing world. Moving forward, it is my goal to understand the extent of phenotypic variation of plant populations in naturally fragmented habitats and whether these populations are large and genetically diverse enough to survive and adapt to a changing climate.

Email: rthoen@uga.edu

Anna Wyngaarden
PhD student
(she/her)

I’m a PhD student in the DeMarche lab and am interested in rare and endemic plant species and their habitats, particularly relating to their range limits and responses to climate change. I completed my undergraduate degree in Horticulture at North Carolina State University and have found a deep love for the flora of the Southeastern United States. I hope to better understand plant populations’ responses to our changing climate and to help inform applied conservation efforts. 

Email: aw43366@uga.edu

Clayton Hale
PhD student
(he/him)

I am currently a Ph.D. student in the DeMarche Lab. I am interested in leveraging community and population ecology to inform biodiversity conservation in a changing world. I received a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where I studied how multi-species tree plantings can be used to increase biodiversity in forest restoration. More recently, I received an M.S. in Forestry from Mississippi State University where I studied the regeneration potential and developed landscape-level habitat suitability models for three rare and imperiled woody plant species. The goal of my current Ph.D. work is to understand the effects of climate change on plant species interactions and how it will affect their phenology, fitness, and distributions to inform biodiversity conservation decision-making. If I’m not working on my research, you can likely find me exploring the whitewater rivers of the Southeast or on the disc golf course.

Email: Clayton.Hale@uga.edu

Emma Horne
MS student
(she/her)

I am a MS student in the DeMarche lab. I am interested in the relationship between plants and their underground mutualists, particularly how these species interactions shape plant distributions and range limits compared to other environmental drivers. I am eager to apply this knowledge to plant conservation and potential mitigation of the effects of climate change. I received my undergraduate degree in plant biology at the University of Georgia where I studied pollen and petal morphological traits in Geranium maculatum. Outside of research, I love foraging for (mostly edible) fungi, listening to podcasts, and playing dungeons and dragons.

Email: emmahorne@uga.edu

Emma Chandler
PhD student
(she/her)

I am PhD student in the DeMarche lab and am interested in how populations of alpine and arctic tundra plant species are responding to climate change. I completed my B.S. in Biology and Chemistry at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. Later, I received my M.S. in Environmental and Conservation Sciences at North Dakota State University where I studied the effects of moderate and extreme heat on vegetative and reproductive traits in horsenettle and the effect of snowpack on flowering phenology in a tall-grass prairie. Currently, my goal is to understand how the mating systems of two alpine and arctic species impact the persistence of their populations across environmental gradients and predict how climate change could affect those patterns. When I’m not kneeling in front of tiny plants or sitting in front of my computer, I enjoy hiking, running, and reading.

Jill Wilson ​
Undergraduate researcher
(they/them)

I’m currently a 3rd year undergraduate student at UGA majoring in Ecology and minoring in Horticulture. I have a background in ecology from participating in forestry surveys on Loblolly Pine populations to working in wildlife conservation specializing in the care/breeding of endangered animals. Since joining the DeMarche Lab, I’ve been researching how herbarium samples can help us understand the impacts of climate change on flowering phenology in alpine plants. Overall, I’m interested in furthering my understanding of ecology and conservation by being in this lab.

Email: jillian.wilson19@uga.edu

Sydney Speir
Undergraduate researcher
(she/her)

I am a third-year ecology major and plant biology minor from Brookline, New Hampshire. I am specifically interested in understanding the effects of climate change on plant populations and am excited to conduct related research in the DeMarche lab. My project focuses on the effects of increased drought severity on Helianthus porteri, a species endemic to granite outcrops of the southeastern United States. I hope to use my current and future research skills to inform plant conservation efforts and help preserve native biodiversity.