Biology Professor Honored For Research That Illuminates Impact of Climate Change

Susana Wadgymar, biology professor and evolutionary ecologist at Davidson College, was recently honored by the Ecological Society of America for her research that sheds light on plants’ ability to weather climate change.

In May, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) named Wadgymar a recipient of the 2026 W.S. Cooper Award. The award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the fields of geobotany and physiographic ecology, honors Wadgymar and her co-authors for their groundbreaking research on how plant populations respond to the escalating pressures of climate change. The committee specifically highlighted their study, "Adaptation and gene flow are insufficient to rescue a montane plant under climate change," published in the journal Science last year.

Wadgymar and her colleagues’ award-winning research provides a rigorous empirical test of evolutionary resilience. By monitoring more than 100,000 seeds and seedlings of the montane plant Boechera stricta across five elevations, the research team quantified the species’ ability to survive in both current and simulated future climates. 

Their findings revealed a sobering reality: While these plants have historically adapted well to their local environments, the rapid pace of modern climate change has disrupted these patterns. 

“This is particularly true for the plants at dry, warm sites at low elevations,” Wadgymar said. “Those populations have gone extinct since the experiment began. The high-elevation populations are okay so far, but we expect to see the same effect as the climate continues to warm.”

The movement of genes through seeds and pollen could rescue low-elevation populations from extinction and stabilize high-elevation populations. However, the study concluded that natural levels of gene flow are currently moving too slowly to keep pace with climate change.

“People think of climate change as a future issue,” Wadgymar said. “But we are already experiencing it. And the patterns we saw in this experiment showed plant populations from a variety of environments are not performing well.” 

The W.S. Cooper Award is named for a pioneer of ecology who studied how historical factors like glaciation shapes plant communities. In keeping with that legacy, Wadgymar’s work suggests that human intervention, such as assisted gene flow, may be necessary to preserve biodiversity along environmental gradients. The recognition places Wadgymar among the leading voices in ecology, underscoring the vital role of Davidson faculty in addressing global environmental crises through high-impact, collaborative science.