Plants are remarkably good at adjusting how they capture sunlight and produce food through photosynthesis. A new computer model helps scientists better understand these adjustments by looking at what happens at different heights within a plant canopy, from the sun-drenched leaves at the top to the shaded leaves near the ground. Chi Chen, assistant professor […]
Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
Professor Siobain Duffy and International Team Receive Prestigious UK–US Breakthrough Award for Global Food Security Innovation
At a reception hosted at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. on March 4, Professor Siobain Duffy and her international research team were recognized with the Pioneering UK–US Breakthroughs (PUB) Award, a distinction honoring seven collaborative teams whose work is addressing some of the world’s most urgent challenges. Presented by His Majesty’s Ambassador to the […]
Scientists Develop New Gut Health Measure That Tracks Disease
Scientists have identified a new way to distinguish healthy guts from diseased ones and track how some illnesses progress by measuring how gut bacteria interact with one another. According to a study published in Science, a Rutgers-led team of scientists found that healthy and diseased digestive systems behave like two distinct ecological states, driven not by individual microbes but […]
Teaching Professor Allyson Salisbury Wins ISA Early-Career Scientist Award
Allyson Salisbury, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, is the recipient of the 2025 International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Early-Career Scientist Award. This Award of Distinction recognizes an individual who shows exceptional promise, with high potential to become an internationally recognized scientist. The ISA Awards […]
What Bees Can Tell Us About Conservation and Land Use
A new study has challenged a long-held belief in ecology: that a bee’s body size determines how far it travels and, in turn, how much land around it matters. The authors of the study, published in Ecography, tested this idea—called the “mobility hypothesis”—by analyzing 84 species of wild bees across 165 sites in the northeastern […]
How Nature Can Make Urban Dwellers Healthier
A study by Rutgers ecologist Myla Aronson and colleagues has found “overwhelming” evidence that increasing biodiversity in cities – establishing parks, installing native plants and encouraging sustainable landscaping – can significantly improve human health. Reporting in the science journal People and Nature, Aronson and coauthors described conducting a systematic review of more than 1,500 studies to synthesize […]
Distinguished Professor Joanna Burger Has Endowed a Legacy Professorship at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
The Rutgers University Board of Governors (BOG) voted today, June 17, to establish the Joanna Burger Endowed Legacy Professorship to support faculty in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources who are advancing the study of behavioral ecology in innovative and impactful ways. This legacy professorship is the first for the School of Environmental […]
Rutgers Botanist Builds Bridge Between Science and Art in MoMA Exhibit on Hilma af Klint
A year ago, Rutgers botanist Lena Struwe received a call from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York asking her to participate in a research collaboration investigating a set of recently discovered botanical drawings by Hilma af Klint, the esteemed early 20th century artist from Sweden, whose oversized abstract paintings were hidden for […]
Rising to a Global Challenge, Scientists Win Acclaim for Developing Ways to Measure Rainforest Biodiversity
Rutgers researchers shine in competition designed to produce rapid and autonomous technologies to identify vanishing species The challenge posed by organizers of the XPRIZE Rainforest competition to the international scientific community was formidable. Devise a way to document the biodiversity within a remote Amazonian rainforest without stepping foot within, they said. Design a tent-size, portable […]
Chi Chen publishes research on the biophysical effects of croplands on land surface temperatures
The academic journal Nature Communications published new research this month authored by Chi Chen, assistant professor and faculty member in the Rutgers University Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources. The paper, titled “Biophysical effects of croplands on land surface temperature,” draws on two decades of satellite data to analyze the biological and physical mechanisms […]











