Updates
Updates from the TrEnCh Project on new tools, publications, and research developments.
NSF Funding · 2024
We recently received a NSF Rules of Life grant to fund further studies of the physiological and genetic mechanisms underlying grasshopper responses to climate change. An exciting component is examining the relative importance of physiological changes to genetics with climate change. We will leverage this initiative to develop an integrative modeling approach that can bridge ecology and evolution to inform climate change adaptation.
Tools · 2023
Our new Insect Development and Phenology Forecaster is now live. The app leverages a database of insect development traits to predict phenology for many species across the US, helping researchers and land managers anticipate how climate warming will shift emergence timing.
Research · 2022
Our team has now collected over 7,000 grasshoppers across the Boulder, CO elevation gradient—repeating surveys that span nearly 50 years. This long-term dataset is revealing how thermal tolerances, phenology, and abundance shift with climate change along mountain elevation gradients. The project focuses on species in the genus Melanoplus and Melanoptila collected during the 1960s by Gordon Alexander.
Community · 2021
We launched TrEnCh-ED, an interactive website including R Shiny applications and associated tutorials, to allow students and visitors to explore the ecological and evolutionary impacts of climate change through interacting with data. The tutorials originate from a 1979 course at UW entitled "Physical Processes in Ecosystems" and align with the TrenchR package.
Tools · 2020
TrEnCh-IR is now live as a web service for processing, storing, and disseminating FLIR infrared imagery. Community members can upload thermal images of organisms and environments to this shared repository, contributing to collective understanding of the thermal ecology of organisms in the wild.
We are also sharing infrared cameras that attach to smartphones to encourage project members to explore the thermal conditions of their own environments and contribute to our @trenchproject Instagram.