The world’s estimated 425 oak species exchange genes with their close relatives through hybridization. The Quercus Quest campaign is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Dimensions of Biodiversity Program (learn more about our research partners below), which is investigating how this exchange of genetic material allows oaks to adapt to new environments, and how oaks then shape the populations of insect and fungal species that depend on them. Because hybridization depends on the timing of pollen movement between species, and because the fungi and insects that live on oaks respond to the timing of leaf and root production, phenology is key to understanding the complexities of oak ecosystems.

Your data collected as part of this campaign will be used to understand the relationship between climate and leaf and flowering phenology in eastern white oak, bur oak, and their relatives.