News & Announcements
Announcements of opportunities
Position open. Hans Paerl & Mike Werz have a position open for a graduate student to work on their new grant from the NSF Chemical Oceanography program, starting summer or fall 2008.
New IGERT grant. UNC-CH has received a 5-year IGERT grant to support graduate training in population and environment. Up to ten graduate fellows at a time may be supported by the grant with an annual stipend of $27,500. Students can apply through the Curriculum in Ecology or traditional departments. In addition travel funds will be available for participants to work at focal study sites in Ecuador, Tanzania, Thailand, and possibly Nepal.
Curriculum students and faculty in the news
April 2008 – Hans Paerl, Curriculum faculty member, analyzed nutrient overenrichment of waters which has promoted the growth of cyanobacteria as harmful algal blooms and was featured in Science. [click here to read about Hans' research].
February 2008 – Elizabeth Selig, PhD Ecology student, was part of a team of scientists that analyzed factors contributing to warming ocean temperatures and was featured on the front page of The Washington Post. [click here to read about Liz's research].
January 2008 – Martin Doyle, Curriculum faculty member and Associate Professor in the Geography Department, was featured in Science for his finding has discovered that some Obsolete infrastructure holds benefits for environment [click here to read about Martin's research]. Also, Professor Doyle has been named one of the 2008 GlaxoSmithKline Faculty Fellows for Public Policy through the Institute for Emerging Issues. [click here to read more].
January 2008 – John Bruno, Curriculum faculty member and Associate Professor in the Marine Sciences and Biology Departments, was featured in Endeavors for his finding of the the sharp decline of coral reefs around the world. [click here to read about John's research]
January 2008 – Karin Pfennig , Curriculum faculty member and Assistant Professor in the Biology Department, was featured in Endeavors for her finding has discovered that some spadefoot toads will jump the species barrier — if their offspring can benefit. [click here to read about Karin's research].
October 2007 -- Dick Bilsborrow, Curriculum faculty member is coauthor of a new book: People on the Move: Reducing the Impact of Human Migration on Biodiversity, published by theWorld Wildlife Fund and Conservation International.
August 2007 – John Bruno, Curriculum faculty member and Associate Professor in the Marine Sciences and Biology Departments, was featured on BBC for his finding of the rapid decrease of CoralReefs in the Pacific Ocean. [click here to read about John's research]
August 2007 – Meghan McKnight has had a paper accepted for publication in PLoS Biology. This paper presents the first large-scale maps of beta diversity. Look for "Putting Beta-Diversity on the Map: Broad-Scale Congruence and Coincidence in the Extremes" by Meghan W. McKnight, Peter S. White, Robert I. McDonald, John F. Lamoreux, Wes Sechrest, Robert S. Ridgely, Simon N. Stuart
July 2007 – Scott Ensign, Graduate student in Ecology. Scott won the 2007 Ecological Society of America's Best Paper Award in Biogeosciences for his paper "Nutrient spiraling in streams and river networks" published last year in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences.
April 2007 – Scott Ensign, Graduate student in Ecology, was awarded a prestigious EPA STAR fellowship. This brings our total current STAR fellows to three, Erich Hester and Liz Selig having previously received this award.
April 2007 – Recent graduate Sarah Marcinko stole the show at the Annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists held in Columbia, South Carolina. Sarah was the first ever to achieve the hat trick of winning the Odum Award of the Ecological Society for the best oral paper in Ecology, the North Carolina Botanical Garden Award for the best paper on plant conservation, and honorable mention for the Quarterman & Keever Award of the Ecological Society for the best poster in Ecology, all at the same meeting. We hear that the folks at the awards banquet began to feel a bit of déjà vu during the announcements. Congratulations to Sarah who has just accepted a position with Equinox Environmental Consultation in Asheville, NC.
Fall 2006 - Dr. Aaron Moody, associate professor in UNC's geography department in the College of Arts and Sciences, leads a five-year study. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the North Carolina State, Duke and Virginia Tech universities have received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the federal government to study habitat conservation of rare and threatened animals on and around Fort Bragg, N.C. Dr. Aaron Moody and his team will study the habitat needs of four animals: the red-cockaded woodpecker and a small brown butterfly called the St. Francis' satyr, both considered endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the eastern tiger salamander, a species considered threatened by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission; and the Carolina gopher frog, which is on the state's threatened list and is a "species of concern" to the federal government. Research at Carolina.
Spring 2006 - Anthropolgy professor Flora Lu Holt understands the importance of being a mentor. The Fountain.
Spring 2006 - Aaron Moody (PI) and Robert Peet (coPI) were awarded $358,137 in federal funding to assess the impact of vegetation structure and physiology on biodiversity. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded the funds. This was one of only seven NASA Terrestrial Ecology and Biodiversity program grants made this year.
Spring 2006 -Gabriel Cumming and the rest of class ECOL 199, Amy Cooke, Carly Apple, Ryan Leckie, Liz Matthews, Dahl Clark Winters and Katerina Savvas helped the National Forest Service revise the forest's land management plan at Uwharrie National Forest. Click here to read Cumming's interview.
Spring 2006 - Meghan McKnight: Global tests of biodiversity concordance and the importance of endemism. Nature 440:212-214. Meghan McKnight, PhD ecology graduate student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, co-author for an article that provides evidence that endemism is a useful surrogate for the conservation of all terrestrial vertebrates.
Fall 2005 - Alan Weakley: Rhiannon's Aster: A toddler's tantrum helps a new flower get its name. Endeavors. Alan Weakley, Curator of the University of North Carolina Herbarium names new species of aster after his daughter, Rhiannon.
Fall 2005 - Carla Norwood & Gabriel Cumming: Documentary Macon Voices debuts. The Franklin Press. "Macon County Voices" is a documentary interviewing residents about long-range land-use planning. The project is the work of Carla Norwood, former executive director of the Little Tennessee Watershed Association, and Gabriel Cumming, both of whom are PhD ecology graduate students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. After nearly a year of research and interviews, the project is ready to reveal to Macon County.
Fall 2004 - Andrea Jones: Grant recipient plants seed for UNC program. Daily Tar Heel. Andrea Jones, a graduate student in Ecology, received a research fellowship from N.C. Beautiful, an organization that promotes environmental research and stewardship across the state.
Spring 2004 - Pete Peterson: Bay oysters and parasites. Washington Times. Marine scientist Charles Peterson is testing the mysterious parasite that is sickening Asian oysters in Bogue Sound.
Spring 2004 - John Bruno: Sewage nutrients fuel coral disease. New Scientist. A recent study,led by marine scientist John Bruno is the first to show how agricultural run-off and sewage may destroy sea coral. About 80 percent of Caribbean coral has been lost to disease in the past 20 years.
Fall 2003 - John Bruno: Marine scientists discover nutrient pollution boosts fungi, bacteria killing Caribbean reefs. Raleigh News and Observer.
Fall 2003 - Brad Lamphere: Researcher angles to explain fish's ways. Raleigh News and Observer.
Summer 2003 - Robert Peet & Alan Weakley: Boot camp for Botanists. Endeavors.
Spring 2003 - Becky Brown: UNC ecologists find floodplains particularly vulnerable to invasion by exotic plant species. UNC News Service release.
Summer 2002 - Robert Peet & Alan Weakley: Leaves of Knowledge. Raleigh News and Observer.