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Ecology Institute

Accelerating Research, Inspiring Solutions 


*** The leadership of the Penn State ecology community has prepared the following statement about the continuing need to address racism and injustice in our society:

Please read here. 

The Penn State Ecology Institute brings together faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars, and stakeholders to drive innovation in ecology-based research and training. Our approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on the diverse skills and perspectives in our research community. We also engage with other disciplines, including geosciences, geography, sociology, ethics, policy, decision analysis, economics, landscape architecture, and anthropology. Together, we are working to address the most defining challenges in contemporary ecology. Come see, come learn, come explore with us.

Resilience and Adaptation

Provisions of Ecosystem Goods and Services

Ecology at the Interface

Rapid Evolutionary Change

Ecological Foundations

News

Macalady named Ecology Institute director

Microbe expert Jennifer Macalady replaces outgoing director Erica Smithwick, who oversaw the research unit for the past five years.

David Hughes named Chair in Global Food Security

David Hughes, professor of entomology and biology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and creator of PlantVillage, a knowledge platform that helps farmers combat pests and adapt to climate change, has been named the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security in the University’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

Weird warbler reveals genetics of its mismatched colors

An incredibly rare hybrid warbler with mismatched color patterns has allowed researchers to disentangle the genetic drivers of two traits that usually come as a package deal — the black face mask and the black throat patch in blue-winged and golden-winged warblers.

News

Macalady named Ecology Institute director

Microbe expert Jennifer Macalady replaces outgoing director Erica Smithwick, who oversaw the research unit for the past five years.

David Hughes named Chair in Global Food Security

David Hughes, professor of entomology and biology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and creator of PlantVillage, a knowledge platform that helps farmers combat pests and adapt to climate change, has been named the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security in the University’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

Weird warbler reveals genetics of its mismatched colors

An incredibly rare hybrid warbler with mismatched color patterns has allowed researchers to disentangle the genetic drivers of two traits that usually come as a package deal — the black face mask and the black throat patch in blue-winged and golden-winged warblers.

Snapshot USA: First-ever nationwide mammal survey now published

The results of the first national mammal survey, now publicly available online, provide the framework to answer a variety of questions about wild animal populations and conservation strategies for threatened species. The survey, which involved researchers from across the country including a biologist at Penn State, is made up of data from 1,509 motion-activated camera traps from 110 sites located across all 50 states.