The National Science Foundation is awarding a $1.2 million research grant to an Augustana professor.
Carrie Olson-Manning, PhD., is an associate biology professor. She plans to use the grant to further her research on milkweed hybrids.
Olson-Manning said she plans to continue studying how monarch butterflies interact with the hybrids.
“We've done some feeding experiments in the greenhouse and we found some really interesting results where when the plants are really little the monarchs grow very slowly on the hybrids, which we thought was kind of interesting and we're just now trying to figure out why,” she said.
The grant money will also be used for community outreach.
Olson-Manning has partnered with South Dakota Discovery Center to collaborate with K-12 teachers so they can use milkweed gardens in their classes.
The grant will fund five years of research.
