Research Awards and Grants (August 2023)

Each month College of Natural Resources faculty receive awards and grants from various federal, state, and nongovernmental agencies in support of their research. This report recognizes the faculty who received funding in August 2023.

Establishing and Assessing Biological Control Agents of Emerald Ash Borer in North Carolina

• PI: Oten, Kelly 
• Direct Sponsor Name: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
• Awarded Amount: $66,154 
• Abstract:  Our objectives are:
  (1) Implement parasitoid releases for T. planipennisi and S. galinae in western North Carolina if current PPA 7721-funded project suggests a climatic match.
  (2) Utilize sentinel logs to assess parasitoid establishment in North Carolina where parasitoids were previously released and where ash mortality is high and EAB populations are latent.
  (3) Evaluate efficacy of coppiced ash in prolonging high EAB populations and providing an extended parasitoid wasp release window and increased establishment success.
  These activities will advance our understanding of EAB development for optimized release, recovery, and establishment of EAB parasitoids, and improve the effectiveness of EAB integrated management approach for this invasive forest pest for North Carolina and other southern U.S. states.

Connecting Campuses to Communities with Micro mobility Infrastructure

• PI: Hipp, Aaron
• Direct Sponsor Name: Spin
• Awarded Amount: $90,744 
• Abstract:  The overall objective is to examine how micro mobility can support key NC State transportation objectives and Go Triangles regional transit plans by enabling multimodal connections, achieving mode shift, and planning for future sustainable transport alternatives.

Iterative Improvement of a Program for Building Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible Large-scale (IDEAL) Participatory Science Projects

• PI: Cooper, Caren 
• Direct Sponsor Name: National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Amount Awarded: $1,123,487 
• Abstract: The goal of our Integrating Research and Practice proposal is to broaden engagement in informal learning in the context of large-scale participatory science projects to include identity groups historically excluded and underrepresented in STEM and informal STEM. Forms of participatory science that are remarkably successful at engaging hundreds of thousands of participants in informal learning environments face a diversity crisis. The overwhelming majority of participants in these types of projects, typically referred to as citizen science, are White, highly educated, and wealthy. Our aim is to provide project leadership teams (practitioners) with the knowledge, awareness, and resources to modify their projects with practices that support inclusion, equity, and accessibility. Our plan builds on products produced with prior NSF-AISL funding of the Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible, Large-scale (IDEAL) Participatory Science working group. We will beta-test the IDEAL Guide, tutorial, and workshops through

GUIDE-BEST: (Antarctica): Growing Understanding of Individual Drivers of Expectations and Behaviors to Enhance Sustainable Tourism in Antarctica: PT Repair

• PI: Leung, Yu-Fai 
• Direct Sponsor Name: The Dutch Research Council (NWO)
• Awarded Amount: $48,637 
• Abstract: Tour operators often market a visit to the Antarctic as an experience that creates ambassadors of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) emphasizes that visitors returning from the region often make changes in their lives by the mere experience of awe and respect when encountering surreal Antarctic landscapes, flora, and fauna in combination with the educational program offered to the tourists. From a conceptual perspective, IAATO narrative appears to summarize behavioral shifts in visitors towards more pro-environmental values, attitudes, and behaviors. Addressing the overarching question of how pro-environmental behaviors of Antarctic visitors can be facilitated, and negative environmental impacts can be reduced, GUIDE-BEST will result in a better understanding of the drivers of expectations and changes in visitors and guides attitudes and behaviors through their Antarctic experiences during and after visits, while contextualizing… 

Data Use Agreement

• PI: Jones, Chris 
• Direct Sponsor Name: Google Inc.
• Awarded Amount: $0 
• Abstract:  Google wants to grant to NCSU a non-commercial, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable license to use
  (including reproducing and creating derivative works of) the Licensed Content.  Licensed Content means Google Street View images and aerial imagery for 1 million trees; the 1 million trees were identified from a larger dataset of more than 5 million records of public tree information include (latitude, longitude, species/genus, and other associated data, e.g.,
  diameter, health) collected from 24 cities in the US and Canada covering ~350 genus level categories. For Google images, Google will provide an image collection timestamps (at monthly granularity).

Forest Health Monitoring and Assessment

• PI: Conkling, Barbara 
• Direct Sponsor Name: US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service
• Amount Awarded: $422,000 
• Abstract: The Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Program is a long-term, national research and monitoring effort focusing on forest ecosystems. This interagency program is designed to assist resource managers and policy makers in managing forest resources in the United States, allocating funds for research and development, and evaluating the effectiveness of environmental policies. FHM national reporting includes an annual technical report that provides analysis and synthesis of technical information at the national level, and other special publications that provide information about national forest health conditions and management priorities. Through the work in this agreement, the principal investigators and other research personnel will provide the Forest Health Monitoring Research Team of the USFS Southern Research Station Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC) with data analyses, natural resource assessments, and technical writing skills in support of the national Forest Health Monitoring Program.