Ruth Geyer Shaw (born 1953)[1] is a professor and principal investigator in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior[4] at the University of Minnesota.
[18] By studying Echinacea angustifolia, she has demonstrated that inbreeding, which frequently affects fragmented populations, can influence key functional traits.
Traits related to plant structure, physiology and elemental composition are important to individual fitness and ecological dynamics in populations.
[19] With Margaret Bryan Davis and others, Shaw has examined Paleoclimate change in North American forests, from the Quaternary period onwards.
Pollen granules and other plant remains, found in lake sediment cores, can show changes in populations in an area over time.
[20][21][22] In 2011, Davis, Shaw and Julie R. Etterson received the William Skinner Cooper Award from the Ecological Society of America for the paper "Evolutionary responses to changing climate".
The evidence they presented suggests that evolutionary adaptation does occur in plant populations subjected to the stress of rapid environmental change.