Conservation & Ecological RestorationMax Scheel
2025 The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
The Responses of Restored Tallgrass Prairie Plant Community to Future Climate Change
Climate change is expected to bring more frequent spring rain events and intense summer drought to the Midwestern United States. These disturbances have the potential to disrupt critical ecosystem functions of restored tallgrass prairies such as biodiversity and net primary production. This study will experimentally investigate the effects of expected future precipitation regimes on these key ecosystem functions through the application of spring rain additions and summer rain-out shelters. Doing so will help to develop a mechanistic understanding of the threats to ecological restoration posed by climate change, which is necessary for designing new and effective restoration practices that will ensure the maintenance of the ecological functions tallgrass prairies provide.
The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
The Garden Club of America (the GCA) offers an annual Fellowship in Ecological Restoration. Established in 2000 with funds from the John B. Young Charitable Trust as well as GCA members and clubs, the fellowship’s goal is to support research that will advance knowledge and increase the number of scientists in the important field of ecological restoration, the active healing of the land. The $8,000 grant is awarded annually to exceptional graduate students to support specialized study in ecological restoration at an accredited U.S. university. Preference will be given to projects that include field research conducted in the United States. A panel of experts associated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum reviews the applications and makes recommendations to the GCA Scholarship Committee.
For the purposes of this scholarship, The Garden Club of America agrees to the definition of ecological restoration as stated by the Society of Ecological Restoration (SER).