SSI Post-doctoral Fellow Christine Lamanna Tackles Disappearing Plants Mystery

lamannaPlants that grow in alpine environments are often the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to climate change. A number of plants have disappeared from Acadia National Park despite being protected for nearly a century. Climate change is the prime suspect. Christine Lamanna, a post-doctoral fellow at the Mitchell Center’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), is working with stakeholders and citizen scientists to figure out what this means for the future of native plants.

Working as part of the Effects of Climate Change on Organisms (ECCO) team at SSI, LaManna and a diverse working group including citizen volunteers, is conducting research at Acadia to find out why 20 percent of the park’s plant species have disappeared since the late 1800s. Additionally, Lamanna is creating maps predicting how important species in the state may respond to future climate change – and how those changes could affect the state economically, culturally and ecologically. See more on this story