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: [email protected]

CV

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: [email protected]
Website: https://rileydthoen.weebly.com/​

Anna Wyngaarden
PhD Candidate​ 
(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: [email protected]

Clayton Hale
PhD Candidate
(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: [email protected]

Emma Horne
MS Student
(she/her)

I am a MS student in the DeMarche lab. I am researching the effect of snowmelt timing on the synchronicity of flowering in three cushion plants found in the alpine tundra, and whether more or less synchronicity influences reproduction in these species. 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: [email protected]

Emma Chandler
PhD Candidate
(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.

Email: [email protected]

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.

Vincent Le
Undergraduate researcher
(he/him)

Project: ​Drought effects on Helianthus porteri

Zoe Mitchell
Undergraduate researcher
(she/her)

The title of my project is “ The Effects of Population Density on Survival and Reproduction of Helianthus Porteri.”

Jake Ferus
Undergraduate researcher
(he/him)

Project title: Spatial Analysis of Trillium spp. Occurrences to Observe Conservation Status

Isabella Pellicano
Undergraduate researcher
(she/her)

I am a second-year ecology and plant biology double major and Spanish minor from Lisle, Illinois. I'm interested in understanding how native plant traits and community composition will shift under climate change and how plants interact with pollinators and fungi. I'm looking forward to learning more about plant phenology and phenotypic plasticity in the DeMarche lab and how these factors impact plant success in a changing world.

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