NC State Department of Applied Ecology

08/13/2026

Since its creation in 2013, the Department of Applied Ecology has advanced research, education and outreach while addressing critical challenges affecting North Carolina and communities around the world. Over the course of the fall 2026 semester, applied ecology faculty, staff and programs will be integrated into aligned academic homes across the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), with the transition completed by the end of the year.

“This transition reflects the changing landscape of higher education and our commitment to ensuring our faculty and programs continue to thrive,” says CALS Dean Garey Fox. “By integrating faculty expertise and research programs across CALS, we can create even greater opportunities for collaboration, innovation and impact.”

The transition is administrative in nature and is intended to better support faculty research, expertise and partnerships. Research programs, Extension efforts, stakeholder engagement and teaching will continue throughout the transition and into the future.

Read more: https://cals.ncsu.edu/news/department-of-applied-ecology-to-transition-academic-structure

07/21/2026

As COVID-19 disrupted rural economies, communities living near protected rainforests faced rising uncertainty about jobs, health and basic needs.

A new study in The Lancet Planetary Health shows that when communities were supported by health and livelihood programs that they designed with local nongovernment organizations, both people and ecosystems were more resilient.

“Before the pandemic, forest loss was declining in protected areas where neighboring communities partnered with NGOs. Those communities were less dependent on illegal logging for cash income,” said Skylar Hopkins, an assistant professor and the lead author for the new study. “As the pandemic started, we expected economic hardships to cause illegal logging to increase again.”

Yet satellite data from 28 affiliated and 698 unaffiliated villages revealed that forest loss declined by an average of 39 percent across the region after the pandemic was declared in March 2020.

Read more about how community-designed health and livelihood solutions can build resilience for both people and ecosystems. 🌿🌏
https://news.ncsu.edu/2026/07/community-led-health-and-livelihood-programs-helped-protect-rainforests-during-the-pandemic/

07/21/2026

Congrats to our award-winning students and staff! 🐝

07/18/2026

Paddleboarding for pollen is all in a day's work for NC State Department of Applied Ecology grad student April Sharp. 🤿🐝

Sharp is studying how certain pollen diets can impact bee health. Her hypothesis centers around whether the interaction between spiky-shaped pollen and a bee's gut helps reduce infection of the damaging parasite Crithidia bombi. Sharp and the research team are paddleboarding on Yates Millpond to collect flowers with spiky-shaped pollen for testing.

Learn more about the research: http://ncst.at/Xi6h50Uc9qF

07/08/2026

The sky's the limit for our graduate students ☁️

Gwen Kirschke climbed the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) eddy covariance tower at the Mountain Lake Biological Station in Virginia! Above the treetops, this tower measures gas fluxes between vegetation and the atmosphere. 🌳
This excursion was part of Spectral Ecology Summer School, where Gwen is testing field spectrometry methods for her research project and meeting other early career scientists!

Studying canopy ants in North Carolina, Applied Ecology alum Michelle Kirchner spent a lot of time in trees! 🐜
To prepare for her research project and learn the art of tree climbing, Michelle attended 'Canopy Ant Boot Camp' in Madagascar!

06/22/2026

As PhD candidate Vamery González Hernández studies macroinvertebrates in tropical streams, the rainforest above supports the life she is researching below.

🌴 By providing shade, the tree canopy limits algal growth and regulates water temperature.
🪲 Many insects such as dragonflies start their lives as nymphs, living at the bottom of streams. As adults, they are winged and rely on the rainforest for all their resources.
🍃 Leaves and other organic matter that fall from the rainforest trees provide habitat and food for the organisms within the stream.

Happy World Rainforest Day!

06/18/2026

Where in the world are we this summer? 🌎✈️

Dr. Khara Grieger traveled to Madrid to attend a NSF-funded workshop that brings together US and EU researchers on nanomaterials and nano-plastics to discuss their applications and implications. There, she met her mentee, Imane Khatib, from the University of Rennes in France. Their project is related to nanothermites and environmental contamination from military and war zones.

Dr. Skylar Hopkins, recent graduate Dr. Alex Nelson (left), and PhD student Cory McKinstry (right) attended the 2026 Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease conference in Blacksburg, Virginia to present their research on snake parasites and disease. The conference always includes an afternoon of hiking, and the team couldn't resist checking a friendly rat snake they met on the hike for signs of fungal infection.

Department Head Dr. David Andow visited Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Majestic mountains, adorable bison (viewed from a safe distance), and charismatic flowers like smurf flower (Hydrophyllum capitatum) were highlights of his trip!

06/11/2026

Meet Matteo Petit Bon, a plant and ecosystem ecologist and the newest Applied Ecology faculty member. His research takes him to remote corners of the Northern Hemisphere, where conditions are harsh. Amongst polar bears and glacial ice is a diverse plant community, adapted to survive in the tundra.

His lab, the Traits and Ecological Dynamics (aka Tundra Ecosystem Dynamics, aka TED) lab, studies how plants assemble into complex communities and how these communities shape the ecosystems they inhabit.

"Many people imagine the tundra as empty or biologically simple. Compared to many other ecosystems, it is simpler, but it is also highly diverse," explains Petit Bon. "Just in Svalbard, for example, there are more than 300 bryophyte species and more than 500 lichen species. Tundra ecosystems also store enormous amounts of carbon in frozen soils, making them globally important for climate regulation. Because these ecosystems are tightly linked to the global climate system, what happens in the Arctic can influence ecosystems and societies far beyond the polar regions."

🏔🌱 Read more about Matteo's arctic excursions: https://cals.ncsu.edu/applied-ecology/news/qa-with-an-arctic-ecologist/

06/05/2026

Gone fishin’! 🎣

For six weeks, students pursuing a degree in Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology are engaging in a variety of fish and wildlife management techniques across North Carolina. Fondly known as ‘Summer Camp’, students are learning plant and animal identification, bird mist netting, camera-trapping, radio telemetry and more.

Applied Ecology Assistant Professor Nadya Mamoozadeh led a mark-recapture experiment for largemouth bass in a pond located at the Butner Beef Cattle Field Lab. Not only is this a great experience for students, but the data collected generates a census size estimate for the bass population in the pond.

“We do this every year so that we can monitor the size of the population over time,” says Mamoozadeh. “This is important for us to manage a healthy and balanced population of both bass and bluegill in the pond.”

06/05/2026