October 5, 2021
Because of the warm, wet summer, trees in Pennsylvania are mostly in great shape. But for the state’s forests to exhibit their most vibrant colors, conditions need to be cooler and drier in the next few weeks, according to a Penn State expert.
September 24, 2021
Penn State senior Elka Hoelsken is exploring environmental and natural resource issues as a student in the Environmental Resource Management program.
September 14, 2021
At a time when many municipalities are seeking to control urban stormwater by investing heavily in green infrastructure — such as water-quality ponds, infiltration basins, porous pavement and riparian plantings — a new study suggests that these expensive efforts may not have much of an impact.
August 19, 2021
There is good and bad news about ginseng collection and production in Pennsylvania, and likely much of Appalachia, according to a new study conducted by Penn State researchers.
August 2, 2021
The application of manure after the growth and demise of legume cover crops in rotations is a recipe to increase nitrous oxide releases during ensuing corn growth, according to a team of Penn State researchers who conducted a new study. They suggest that innovative management strategies are needed to reduce these emissions.
July 14, 2021
Burnout. It is a syndrome that is said to afflict humans who feel chronic stress. But after conducting a novel study using trail cameras showing the interactions between white-tailed deer fawns and predators, a Penn State researcher suggests that prey animals feel it, too.
July 8, 2021
Elizabeth Boyer, professor of water resources in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, is the 2021 recipient of the Alex and Jessie C. Black Award for excellence in research.
July 1, 2021
The fast-moving decline and extinction of many species of detritivores — organisms that break down and remove dead plant and animal matter — may have dire consequences, an international team of scientists suggests in a new study.
June 25, 2021
John Carlson, professor of molecular genetics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics, is retiring this month after a career spanning four decades of pioneering research with forest trees.
June 21, 2021
Alyssa Curry, a junior majoring in environmental resource management, with minors in environmental engineering and entomology, is gaining various experiences at Penn State, including research and study abroad opportunities.
June 9, 2021
Watershedwide nutrient credit trading has been suggested as a mechanism for reducing pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay, but a new study by Penn State researchers suggests that the high cost of producing nitrogen credits through the establishment of riparian buffers on Pennsylvania farmland currently does not provide an incentive for buffer establishment.
May 18, 2021
Computed tomography — CT scanning — which combines a series of X-ray images taken from different angles around an organism and uses computer processing to create cross-sectional images of its bones, is providing new insight into an old initiative to characterize fishes in Africa’s Lake Malawi.
May 12, 2021
Forest-products business professionals, students and workers interested in forest-related careers, and vendors of equipment and supplies will gather for commerce, education and networking at the 2021 Forest Products Equipment and Technology Exposition, June 4-5 at Penn State's Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs.
April 13, 2021
Penn State’s Environment Resource Management program — referred to as ERM — was established in 1971 to meet the demand for people with the scientific and leadership skills needed to address the enormous environmental challenges that had become so apparent in the 1960s.
March 25, 2021
Penn State researchers, who are evaluating the colors, pattern variations and genetics of wild brook and brown trout across Pennsylvania, are asking anglers to help with their study.
March 22, 2021
Developing a standardized drying protocol for goldenseal could lead to more predictable health applications and outcomes by preserving the alkaloids found in the plant, which is native to Appalachia, according to Penn State researchers, who conducted a new study of the medicinal forest herb.
March 19, 2021
Estelle Couradeau, assistant professor of soils and environmental microbiology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, will host a Marie Curie Fellow. The award will fund postdoctoral scholar Jose Raul Roman to study for two years in Couradeau’s Penn State lab.
March 8, 2021
Juvenile white-tailed deer that strike out to find new home ranges — despite facing more risks — survive at about the same rate as those that stay home, according to a team of researchers who conducted the first mortality study of male and female dispersal where deer were exposed to threats such as hunting throughout their entire range.
February 26, 2021
Because walleyes are a cool-water fish species with a limited temperature tolerance, biologists expected them to act like the proverbial “canary in a coal mine” that would begin to suffer and signal when lakes influenced by climate change start to warm. But in a new study, a team of researchers discovered that it is not that simple.
February 18, 2021
The reintroduction of 32 bobcats to an island off the coast of Georgia more than three decades ago created an ideal experiment to examine the accuracy of a genetic-modeling technique that predicts extinction of isolated wildlife populations.
February 18, 2021
Some songbirds are not dissuaded by constant, loud noise emitted by natural gas pipeline compressors and will establish nests nearby. The number of eggs they lay is unaffected by the din, but their reproductive success ultimately is diminished. That’s the conclusion of a team of Penn State researchers who conducted an innovative, elaborate study.
February 17, 2021
Penn State's Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has named Jason Kaye, professor of soil biogeochemistry in the College of Agricultural Sciences, as a distinguished professor.
February 16, 2021
Kim Steiner's decades of contributions to planning for an arboretum, and the work he has guided since the 1990s to make it a reality, have changed the landscape of the University Park campus forever. The founding director of The Arboretum at Penn State will retire from the University in June after nearly five decades on the faculty.
February 9, 2021
Growing the right crop in the right place within an impaired watershed can achieve significant water quality improvements, according to Penn State researchers, who conducted a novel study in the drainage of a Susquehanna River tributary in an agricultural area in southeastern Pennsylvania.
January 11, 2021
The first-ever study of the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the saliva of newborn white-tailed deer fawns yielded surprising results, and that has Penn State researchers suggesting that predation on very young fawns may not be limiting deer herds.
December 16, 2020
Bradley J. Cardinale, professor and director of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, has been named head of Penn State's Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, effective Jan. 4, 2021.
December 16, 2020
Two Penn State botanists have received a grant from Pennsylvania to study wild ginseng population genetics, morphology and human influence through seed planting in the state.
November 24, 2020
Isabella Briseño, an environmental resource management major, already has built an impressive resume for a future career in environmental policy.
November 11, 2020
The Arboretum at Penn State has been recognized as one of three “Great Places in Pennsylvania for 2020” by the state chapter of the American Planning Association.
October 29, 2020
In response to complaints about misleading packaging and fraudulent behavior by some producers of bagged landscaping mulch, Penn State researchers conducted an investigation and devised a process to determine the wood species included in the products, and at what percentage.
