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.
October 2, 2020
A Gender Fellows Cohort, which began last fall under the auspices of the College of Agricultural Sciences' Gender Equity through Agricultural Research and Education initiative, examines gender equity in rural sociology, soil science, plant science and entomology as part of the International Agriculture and Development dual-title graduate degree program.
September 28, 2020
Another invasive disease is threatening an important Pennsylvania forest tree species, and Penn State Extension foresters are investigating ways to control its spread.
September 24, 2020
Penn State researchers have received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to perfect a tool they developed to help organic corn producers decide how much nitrogen — as fertilizer or manure — to apply to their crop fields.
September 17, 2020
Do birds find the spotted lanternfly to be a tasty treat or a nauseating nibble? That is one of the questions researchers at Penn State hope to answer, and they are seeking citizen scientists, especially bird watchers, to help in their quest for knowledge.
August 27, 2020
With little rain in the long-term weather forecast, a worsening drought in much of the Northeast portends trouble for Pennsylvania’s vaunted fall foliage display, at least in parts of the state, according to a Penn State forest expert.
August 26, 2020
Junior Matthew Bellia, an Environmental Resource Management major in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, spent his summer completing a research-based internship with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
August 25, 2020
Few visitors to Penn State's University Park campus know about the Black Walnut Provenance Study, a two-acre grove of black walnut trees near the northeast border of campus which has an interesting backstory and a role to play in ongoing and future research.
August 19, 2020
The rapid pace by which invasive shrubs have infiltrated forests in the northeastern United States has made scientists suspect they have a consistent advantage over native shrubs, and the first region-wide study of leaf timing, conducted by Penn State researchers, supports those suspicions.
August 17, 2020
Penn State researchers, in a recent study, were surprised to learn that they could take the exact same number of seeds from the same plants, put them in agricultural fields across the Mid-Atlantic region and get profoundly different stands of cover crops a few months later.
August 12, 2020
To judge the overall effectiveness of cover crops and choose those offering the most ecosystem services, agricultural scientists must consider the plants’ roots as well as above-ground biomass, according to Penn State researchers who tested the characteristics of cover crop roots in three monocultures and one mixture.
August 11, 2020
Richard Guldin, a 1970 graduate in forestry science from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has been selected as the 2020 winner of the Sir William Schlich Memorial Award. The Schlich award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of forestry with emphasis on policy and national or international activities.
August 10, 2020
Flavonoid compounds — produced by the roots of some sorghum plants — positively affect soil microorganisms, according to Penn State researchers, who suggest the discovery is an early step in developing a frost-resistant line of the valuable crop for North American farmers.
August 3, 2020
Brian Redder, a doctoral student studying soil science and biogeochemistry in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, was chosen by Pennsylvania Sea Grant to participate in the National Sea Grant's John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program, class of 2021.
July 20, 2020
In their zeal to promote the importance of climate change as an ecological driver, climate scientists increasingly are ignoring the profound role that indigenous peoples played in fire and vegetation dynamics, not only in the eastern United States but worldwide, according to a Penn State researcher.
July 6, 2020
The University's ecology community will memorialize faculty member Victoria Braithwaite, who died last year, with a new research excellence award named in her honor that will recognize one student each year for their published ecology research.
June 24, 2020
Conservation efforts that open up the canopy of overgrown habitat for threatened timber rattlesnakes — whose venom is used in anticoagulants and other medical treatments — are beneficial to snakes but could come at a cost, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State and the University of Scranton.
June 22, 2020
A Penn State Extension webinar series, which begins June 24 and continues through Aug. 12, will help rural homeowners address common water supply management problems. "Approximately 3 million Pennsylvanians — mostly in rural homes and on farms — use a private well, spring or cistern for their drinking water," said Bryan Swistock, extension water resources specialist. "Penn State research has shown that about 40% of private water supplies fail at least one health-based drinking water standard, and many others suffer from aesthetic water quality issues."
June 10, 2020
A forest's ability to store carbon depends significantly on the bedrock beneath, according to Penn State researchers who studied forest productivity, composition and associated physical characteristics of rocks in the Appalachian ridge and Valley Region of Pennsylvania.
June 9, 2020
Tammy Shannon, academic advising coordinator for the environmental resource management program, has received the 2020 Excellence in Academic Advising Award from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
