CEFS Agroecology Scholars Program in Research and Extension (ASPIRE)
2022 Research Areas
Use of cover crops for weed suppression
Faculty mentor: Ramon Leon
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: April Dobbs
Introduction and Proposal Weeds have become one of the most important challenges for food supply and agriculture sustainability. Cover crops have the potential to help reduce weed pressure and reliance on herbicides, but growers need technologies that make their use more reliable and effective. The present project integrates breeding of cereal rye as well as modern imaging technologies to quantify cover crop biomass to develop a robust system for cover crop use for weed suppression.
Typical work and research environment: This student researcher will work in the field, greenhouse, and laboratory, quantifying and relating cover crop biomass to weed suppression. The activities will be a combination of work outdoors in high humidity and high temperatures and work indoors using laboratory equipment and computers for data processing and analysis.
No-till weed management in fiber hemp
Faculty mentor: David Suchoff
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: TBD
Introduction and Proposal:
Field trials in Goldsboro and Salisbury, NC will investigate the use of no-till planting of fiber hemp into a winter cover crop mulch as an effective means to manage early season weeds. Field activities will focus on measuring crop emergence, health, and documenting weed germination and growth throughout the season.
Typical work and research environment: This student researcher will spend a significant amount of time conducting field work, soil sampling or crop sampling outside, which will require working outdoors in high humidity and high temperatures.
Project title: Coming Soon
Faculty mentor: Alejandra Huerta
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: Drs. Katherin D’Amico-Willman or Ying-Yu Liao
Typical work and research environment: The student researcher will spend a significant amount of time in a laboratory setting conducting PCR for bacterial gene amplification, gel electrophoresis, bacterial isolation from infected tissue, and bacterial characterization. The student will spend the majority of their time in a lab environment.
Understanding the impact of heat stress on dairy cattle
Faculty mentor: Stephanie Ward
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: TBD
Introduction and Proposal The dairy management program has projects focused on calf and heifer growth and development, lactating cow nutrition and management, and application of precision technologies on dairy farms. Most of our work is applied and results in usable strategies for dairy farmers.
Typical work and research environment: The student selected for this program will spend time collecting data from University and commercial dairy operations, will work with graduate students to analyze and interpret that data and will spend some time in the lab on sample analysis. The majority of their time will be split between on-farm data/sample collection and data analysis. The student may choose to focus more on the “big data” analytics piece of these projects, but will be expected to attend farm visits and interact with dairy producers.
Animal Waste Management program
Faculty mentor: Stephanie Kulesza
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: TBD
Introduction and Proposal: The Animal Waste Management program has several ongoing projects: how manure history impacts soil nitrogen and nitrogen needs of corn, effect of manure injection on ammonia volatilization and corn yield, comparison of near infrared spectroscopy instruments for forage quality assessment, and nitrogen availability of swine mortality composts. The selected student will be given leadership of a project for the summer, organizing and leading sampling events and extracting and analyzing samples.
Typical work and research environment:
Working environments will vary depending on the fieldwork for projects in a given week. Students should expect to spend 50% of their time in the field and 50% of their time in the lab. Field work will include soil sampling, tissue sampling, applying manure or fertilizers which could involve long hours in hot and humid conditions. Lab work will include sample processing and preparation, sample extraction, and sample analysis. Students will learn about Near Infrared spectroscopy and flow injection colorimetry as part of their work.
Improving grape or strawberry transplants
Faculty mentor: Mark Hoffmann
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: Kyle Freedman (PhD Student) or Amrita Mukherjee (PhD Student)
Introduction and Proposal: The NCSU small fruits research and extension program has projects in several areas, mostly focusing on the optimization of transplants. The intern can either work on rooting optimization of grape transplants in soilless substrates (Kyle Freedman) or on the fruiting optimization of strawberry tray plants for a host of different cultivars. The work would encompass root tracing and root morphology assessment (grape transplants) or plant growth assessments, root mass evaluation and the evaluation of floral primordia (strawberry transplants). Moreover the student will participate in professional development offered by the group, including a personality assessment (Clifton Strengths) and the development of a professional development plan.
Typical work and research environment: This student researcher will spend a significant amount of time conducting greenhouse and laboratory work, including plant assessments, root tracing, tissue dissection, and root system assessments. Since the student will join at the end of strawberry harvest season, occasional ‘all hands on deck’ tasks outside (strawberry harvest) will be required in the first two weeks of the internship as well. Generally we try to expose our students to field work, greenhouse environments and laboratory environments.
Adaptation and Resilience in Niche Meat
Faculty mentor: Michael Schulman
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: Andrew Smolski
Introduction and Proposal: NC Choices, a program of CEFS, works with niche meat producers in North Carolina to promote a sustainable supply chain. Dr. Michael D. Schulman and Dr. Andrew R. Smolski are rural sociologists researching small farm resilience and collaborating with NC Choices to understand how farmers adapt to changing conditions, such as COVID-19, and what practices contribute to their resilience. The ASPIRE student will work on collecting data from a sub-set of NC Choices farmers through in-depth interviews (either by zoom, telephone and/or in-person). The student will complete NCSU IRB training (if she/he/they has not done so at their host institution). The ASPIRE student will learn social science primary data collection methods, will learn how to analyze qualitative and quantitative social data, and will develop a report and presentation from the data that can be disseminated to a general audience. Additional professional development will occur through conversations with extension agents, academic researchers, and connecting directly with farmers.
Typical work and research environment: The student researcher will split time between office and on-site work. Office work will involve scheduling interviews, analyzing data, and planning meetings. Field work will involve going to farms for interviews and site visits or using zoom to schedule and conduct interviews (will depend on IRB rules for in-person interviews). The goal is to expose the student researcher to a typical workload for a social scientist collecting data and developing deliverables on issues related to stress and adaptation in the food system.
Evaluating the impact of soil carbon sequestration strategies on soil health properties (Field & Lab Research)
Faculty mentor: Alex Woodley
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: (TBD)
Introduction and Proposal
This project is part of a larger organic study where we are looking at quickly improving soil carbon sequestration and soil health during the three years of transition from conventional to organic. In summer 2021 we added different carbon sources (cover crops, compost and biochar) into field sites in the coastal plain of North Carolina. An area known for low soil health and soil carbon. This project will examine a slice of the research looking at how these carbon strategies impact soil health parameters such as available water holding capacity and microbial respiration. In addition, there is opportunity to examine the greenhouse gas emissions as impacted by these amendments using a portable CO2 analyzer. The focus of the projects in Alex Woodley’s lab is to find ways to both improve system resilience and mitigate agriculture’s contribution to climate change.
Typical work and research environment: This student researcher will spend a significant amount of time conducting field work, soil sampling or crop sampling outside, which will require working outdoors in high humidity and high temperatures and this student researcher will spend an equal amount of time in the lab.
Aquaculture breeding and domestication
Faculty mentor: Ben Reading
Graduate student or Postdoc mentor: Linnea Andersen
Introduction and Proposal: NC State University houses the primary site for the fish breeding and production activities for the National Program for Genetic Improvement and Selective Breeding for the Hybrid Striped Bass Industry and The StriperHub. The National Breeding Program and StriperHub are collaborative programs between government agencies (USDA and NOAA, respectively), industry producers, academic researchers, and other stakeholders that focus on the production and dissemination of hybrid striped bass and domestic striped bass to support the expansion of aquaculture production within North Carolina and the United States. The student researcher will gain experience with continuing and setting goals for this breeding and domestication program through performing analysis and summarization of morphometric (performance trait) data, assisting with hands-on aquaculture husbandry activities, and interacting with various stakeholders of the aquaculture industry.
Typical work and research environment: The student researcher will split time between the field and the office. Field work will include traveling to the NC State Pamlico Aquaculture Field Lab* on the coast (Aurora, NC) to assist with general husbandry, sample collection, harvesting, and grading/sorting of fish on-site and their distribution to industry producers and market distributors. The student researcher will also learn about other field laboratory management tasks (e.g., facility maintenance) and can participate according to comfort and skill level. Office work will include calculating various metrics relevant to a breeding program, such as estimates of heritability and feed conversion ratios, and creating summary infographics and text for reporting. The student researcher will also review research study design concepts and approaches (e.g., machine learning) for identifying genes of interest that underly the desired traits.
*NCSU PAFL webpage: https://cals.ncsu.edu/applied-ecology/striped-bass-genome-project/pamlico-aquaculture-field-laboratory/. The student researcher will not expected to cover the cost of transportation, meals, or lodging for field work; the graduate student mentor, Linnea Andersen, will be accompanying the student researcher in the field and the PAFL has a dormitory and full kitchen. Work at the PAFL will require working in the water and in high temperatures.