MOSCOW, Idaho—A multidisciplinary team led by University of Idaho (U of I) researchers has been granted $15 million to investigate the long-term impact of drought and fire on forest ecosystems.
The six-year award comes from the National Science Foundation’s Biology Integration Institutes (BII), which supports diverse and collaborative teams addressing critical biological questions across multiple disciplines through research, education, and training.
The funding will establish the EMBER (Embedding Molecular Biology in Ecosystem Research) Institute, uniting researchers from various institutions and backgrounds. This includes molecular and cellular biology experts, organismal physiology, and ecosystem sciences.
“We are looking at how stress caused by increasing drought and wildfire affects forest recovery and resilience. By working together, we are not just investigating how trees or microbes respond but how organisms depend on each other to survive,” said Tara Hudiburg, principal investigator for EMBER and professor in U of I’s Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences.
The University of Idaho research team comprises experimentalists and modelers—two groups of individuals who typically operate independently. Their collaboration could influence global approaches to addressing climate change.
Chris Marx, a biology professor at U of I and another co-principal investigator on the project, anticipates that EMBER will pinpoint a concrete method to facilitate the recovery of plants and microbial communities following a fire.
“How do you grow in ash? Especially since ash is such a challenging environment for organisms,” Marx said. “We want to explore how rapid evolution within microbial species and communities can influence tree survival and whether we can use this information to help forests survive and thrive after a wildfire.”
EMBER will also collaborate with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to establish an Indigenous Innovation Lab for tribal and rural students. Additionally, it will develop a unique teacher fellows training program and engage with citizens from across the political spectrum, including climate change skeptics.
To facilitate this, the EMBER team is partnering with U of I’s McClure Center for Public Policy Research and RepublicEn, a conservative organization dedicated to addressing climate change. They aim to host discussions in a non-combative political space.
This project was funded to University of Idaho by the National Science Foundation under award 2320667. The total project funding is $2,669,046, with an estimated total of $15 million in the future, of which 100% is the federal share.
