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

Harvesting vegetation on riparian buffers barely reduces water-quality benefits

Allowing farmers to harvest vegetation from their riparian buffers will not significantly impede the ability of those streamside tracts to protect water quality by capturing nutrients and sediment — and it will boost farmers’ willingness to establish buffers.

Coral’s resilience to warming may depend on iron

How well corals respond to climate change could depend in part on the already scarce amount of iron available in their environment, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers.

Team wins grant to develop nitrogen fertilizer decision tool for organic farmers

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.