Jessica Savage
Plant physiology; plant phenology; plant stress tolerance; climate change; coastal forests; participatory science
Background & Expertise
Jessica Savage, an associate professor in the Department of Biology, is a plant biologist whose research delves into plant stress tolerance and phenology with a strong focus on vascular physiology. She works in a variety of systems from forests and wetlands to crops and horticultural systems. Her work answers critical questions about how plants respond to a world that has been and continues to be changed by human actions. Recently, she has led research investigating how coastal forests are responding to climate change along the shore of Lake Superior. Savage received her PhD from the University of Minnesota and completed two postdoctoral positions, one at the University of Minnesota and one at Harvard University. She was also an independent fellow at the Arnold Arboretum for two years before starting as a faculty at UMN Duluth. In addition to her research, Jessica started and leads a long-term participatory science program in the Twin Ports that is focused on coastal forests.
Welcoming the 2019 Class of IonE Affiliates
In recent weeks, quick glimpses of TV screens — and, for some, harrowing views from windows — have depicted flames ravaging the Amazon rainforest; hurricane-force wind and rain assailing the Bahamas and the east coast of the United States; and insidious, unseen forces weakening ice sheets and deepening an ever-expanding Arctic sea.