Cope Awarded Climate Change Grant

Greg Cope, Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology faculty member along with Tom Kwak (Department of Biology and NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit), and Ryan Heise (NC Wildlife Resources Commission) and several collaborators from federal and state agencies around the country were awarded a $648,000, 3-year grant from the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. Their proposal was one of 17 proposals funded from the 175 submitted for the program. Their successful proposal is entitled “Modeling the response of imperiled freshwater mussels to anthropogenically induced changes in water temperature, habitat, and flow in streams of the southeastern and central United States,” The proposed research is exceptional in including multiple investigators from complementary backgrounds, expertise, and affiliations; combining laboratory, field, and modeling approaches utilizing existing data and gathering new empirical information; spanning broad spatial, temporal, and organizational scales; supporting the higher education of future natural resource professionals; and contributing to the science and conservation of the most imperiled fauna in the world as affected by climate change.