Jack Sytsma

My research explores how plants adapt to environmental change and how that knowledge can be applied to conservation and ecological restoration. I am particularly interested in the ecological and genomic mechanisms that allow species to persist across climatic gradients, with much of my work focusing on prairie ecosystems and the dominant grass big bluestem. By combining field experiments, plant physiology, ecological genomics, and community ecology, I investigate drought adaptation, local adaptation, and intraspecific variation to identify climate-resilient populations for restoration in a warming world. My broader interests include plant ecology, biodiversity conservation, grassland ecosystems, and translating ecological research into practical management solutions.