Megan Bontrager
Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Megan Bontrager is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.
Her research focuses on how ecology and evolution interact to shape species’ geographic ranges, and how plant species adapt to climate. Her lab conducts large-scale field and greenhouse experiments, quantitative syntheses of the literature, and analyses using natural history collections.
Bontrager completed her PhD research in the Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia with Amy Angert. Her thesis work investigated how contemporary climate change affects local adaptation, and how gene flow affects range edge populations of plants.
After finishing her PhD, Bontrager held postdoctoral positions at University of California (UC) Davis and the University of Toronto. Bontrager earned her undergraduate degree UC Santa Cruz, working in the labs of Ingrid Parker and Kathleen Kay, after transferring from Cabrillo Community College.