NRT News Archive

Human dimensions field growing while facing challenges, Chizinski says

Human dimensions is a growing field in wildlife and land management, and specialists in it face many challenges, Christopher Chizinski, human dimensions professor, told NRT students recently.

Museums innovating with technology, Weller tells NRT students

Morrill Hall has several five-legged insects in its entomology collections. These pentapedals are not evidence of a new or extinct species but of the increasing use of technology in museum work. Susan Weller, director of the University of Nebraska State Museum, of which Morrill Hall is a part, recently told NRT students that the museum has been taking DNA from the legs of specimens.

Williams learns about self while learning about birds

Brandy Williams came to Nebraska with questions about piping plovers and killdeer but even greater questions about herself.

Cronk developing models of wells at risk of contaminants during drought

Some wells in Nebraska show higher nitrate levels during drought. Jonathan Cronk, a hydrology master’s student, is developing models of these wells to share with well owners and find solutions.

Hay busts myths on renewable energy

Either red states or blue states can be green, John Hay, Nebraska extension educator, told NRT students recently in a myth-busting session about renewable energy.

Benson speaks on integrating renewable energy in electric grid

Nebraskans pay some of the lowest prices in the nation for electricity, and Lincoln Electric System continues to increase its use of renewables and other green technologies while keeping prices low, Scott Benson of LES told National Research Traineeship students April 12, 2023.

Helzer discusses building resilient land with cattle and fire

On almost any given day, a person can drive by grazing land owned by The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska and see an artist in residence. Chris Helzer, the conservancy’s science director, told NRT students on February 15, 2023, the group uses cows as “habitat artists” to build resilient grasslands.

Hudgins discusses complexities of wind energy with NRT

People want renewable energy, but wind and solar energy are too intermittent to rely on completely, Jerry Hudgins, director of the Nebraska Wind Applications Center, told NRT students on March 29, 2023.

Hay speaks on solar energy savings and policies

How much people save on their electric bill after installing a solar array depends largely on local policies, a Nebraska extension educator told NRT students in a talk on March 1, 2023.

Incarnato takes flight in conservation ecology with butterflies

Miyauna Incarnato has discovered that studying monarch butterflies is not for the faint of heart.

Allen and Awada head network exploring ag resilience

Nebraska ecologists Craig Allen and Tala Awada head a team that received a four-year, $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Network for Integrated Agricultural Resilience Research.

Allen featured in Jan. 17 National Academies workshop

Craig Allen was featured in a Jan. 17, 2023, workshop of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Carranza looking at conservation with Lakota know-how and fire

Katia Carranza is an environmental scientist focused on people.

Craig Allen presenting at CRAWL grand opening

NRT director celebrates ag resilience center with grand opening

The Center for Resilience in Agricultural Working Landscapes withstood pandemic postponements and celebrated its grand opening through a forum at the Nebraska Innovation Campus on Nov. 17, 2022.

NRT co-PI’s research featured on TV

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s nationally leading research on saving Great Plains grasslands will be presented to a national agricultural audience during an hour-long TV program on Nov. 29, 2022.

Brittany Kirsch and Jessica Johnson working on stream

NRT aided career, past students say

Five past Nebraska students returned by Zoom on November 9, 2022, telling current students that taking part in the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship boosted their careers.

Gomez Villegas discovering more about benefits of insects

Araceli Gomez Villegas has observed that the rallying cry “Save the insects!” draws far less enthusiasm than one like “Save the pandas!” She hopes her work in entomology can help change that.

NRT recruits students with pandemic savings

The pandemic hindered the Nebraska NRT but also enabled the program to support an additional three graduate students in 2022-2023.

NRT gains STEAM during pandemic with art

Graduate students in the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship at Nebraska delved into art during the pandemic, transforming STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) into STEAM.

NRT director leading ag network from Canada to Mexico

Craig Allen, NRT director, now heads an international network connecting agricultural networks across Canada, the United States and Mexico to better research agricultural systems and their resilience.

NRT student leads landowner workshops in Denton Hills

Daniel Morales, an NRT master’s student studying natural resources management, led workshops in the Denton Hills on February 4 and April 28, 2022, to hear landowner concerns and gain experience in community engagement.

Doan-Crider speaks to NRT about safety in the field and academia

People of color and women can make work in the outdoors and in academia safer for themselves and others by exercising prudence and making their voices and perspectives heard, Diana Doan-Crider told NRT students on April 27, 2022.

NRT student publishes on method of rating ‘stakeholder agency’

For NRT master’s student Kate Bird, her first publication all came down to means, motive and opportunity.

Doan-Crider speaks about Indigenous science

While western scientists think more like a canal engineered with concrete to move water from one point to another, Indigenous people think more like a river, Diana Doan-Crider told NRT students on March 30, 2022.

Incarnato explores STEM outreach at Nebraska

Miyauna Incarnato, an NRT master's student in biological sciences, told Nebraska Today how she is helping protect pollinators and showing others they can succeed in STEM too.

Lance Gunderson, Craig Allen and Ahjond Garmestani

NRT director coedits new book on panarchy

As a pioneer in the study of ecological resilience and panarchy theory, Craig Allen, director of the NRT, recently blazed those trails further by publishing the new book Applied Panarchy: Applications and Diffusion Across Disciplines.

Nebraska Sandhills rated as world’s most intact prairie

“. . . then you should care about grasslands.” To speak with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Dirac Twidwell is to hear the sentiment emerge as a sort of mantra.

NRT director on team patent for fireball-dropping drones

Craig Allen recently accomplished a personal first as an ecology professor by getting listed on a patent for a fireball-dropping drone.

NRT alum makes impact for Native communities

Former NRT student Sydney Allen, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe from Rapid City, South Dakota, has continued making a difference in Native American communities after completing her master’s degree in civil engineering.

Speaker speaks on environmental evils of slavery

An estimated 40.3 million slaves today may compose one of the world’s largest emitters of carbon dioxide, Kevin Bales, professor of contemporary slavery, told NRT students November 8, 2021, by Zoom.

Craig Allen speaking at Grand Challenges

NRT director talks at Grand Challenges event

Craig Allen, director of the NRT, spoke to about 50 University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty and staff on September 28, 2021, about the new agricultural research network he directs and the ways it addresses sustainable food and water security, one of seven Grand Challenges identified at the university for research investment.

NRT welcomes students at Niobrara Preserve

Professor Craig Allen and the NRT welcomed new and returning students August 8-12, 2021, with canoeing, a bison safari and a class in adaptive management, all at the Niobrara Preserve near Valentine.

Scientist speaks to NRT on river resilience

Scientists researching the upper Mississippi and the Illinois River have the data needed to accurately identify problems, such as low fish populations, and are finding solutions, John Chick, director of the Great Rivers Field Station of the Illinois Natural History Survey, told NRT students in a virtual talk July 29, 2021.

Crane Trust discusses crane research with NRT

Andrew Caven, the director of conservation research at the Crane Trust in Nebraska, spoke to NRT students May 18, 2021, about the organization’s latest research and the work being done to protect and restore Platte River habitat for sandhill cranes, endangered whooping cranes and other birds, plants and animals.

Nebraska adds to global view on resilience

NRT director Craig Allen and master’s students Kate Bird and Alexis Chavez took part in the first worldwide class offered online by the Resilience Alliance, an ecology network, May 24-28, 2021.

NRT director addresses red cedar threat

Craig Allen, NRT director, told the Brownfield Ag News for America that eastern red cedar trees threaten economic activity and wildlife habitats and increase fire danger in the Sandhills.

NRT director leads new resilience center

“Resilient” is a word frequently used when it comes to agriculture. Crops are bred to be resilient against disease, heat, drought and other detrimental conditions. But what does it mean for a landscape to be resilient?

Chavez presents at AMS in Brazilian collaboration

While the pandemic closed some doors, NRT master’s student Alexis Chavez found it opened others, like an international collaboration he established during his first semester at Nebraska and a consequent presentation to the American Meteorological Society.

NRT Director Allen named AAAS fellow

NRT director Craig Allen and three other STEM professors at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society, in February 2021.

Linkov discusses risk, resilience with NRT

The current pandemic is far from unprecedented, yet scientists need to be humble when trying to predict what will happen with the COVID-19 virus, Igor Linkov, risk management strategist, told NRT students November 11, 2020.

NRT gains insight on African water issues

Ellis Adjei Adams, an assistant professor of geography and environmental policy at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, spoke to NRT students on October 28, 2020, about urban water insecurity and governance in Malawi and Ghana and the ways these issues interplay with environmental risks and gender disparities.

NRT Zoom meeting with Resilience Alliance

NRT students deliver "speed talks" to international Resilience Alliance organization

The 10 NRT students taking the “Foundations of Ecological Resilience” course in the fall did some fast talking at the International Science Meeting of the Resilience Alliance on October 20, 2020, all rising to the challenge of explaining their graduate research within five minutes.

NRT student awarded grant for research

NRT doctoral student Katharine Hogan received a $15,000 grant in July 2020 from North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education to support her research on prairie restorations and pollinators.

NRT students create free resilience materials

University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate students recently formed the Council of Resilience Education to equip the public with information and strategies for tackling harmful environmental changes like red cedars invading grasslands and toxic algae blooming in lakes.

Bennett meets with NRT after guest lecture

After delivering the first Heuermann Lecture of 2020, Elena Bennett, sustainability professor at McGill University in Canada, met with the NRT from January 15-16 to discuss further her vision for a better future for our planet and strategies to get there.

Allen delivers Heuermann lecture on resilience

At the final Heuermann Lecture of 2019, Craig Allen, director of the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship at Nebraska, and two other panelists gave hope and strategies for meeting the world’s need for increased agricultural production while keeping agricultural ecosystems healthy.

NRT professor advances resilience screening

By relying on supercomputers, unprecedented land-cover data and a healthy dose of ecological theory, NRT professor Dirac Twidwell and other scientists have introduced ecological screening that could help conservationists and landowners treat early warning signs of environmental disaster rather than entrenched symptoms.

Schutz discusses environmental law with NRT

Anthony Schutz, Nebraska College of Law professor, told NRT students in a roundtable discussion on December 11, 2019, that lawyers can appear as dark, analytical people nobody wants to work with but that also makes them good members of environmental decision-making teams.

Audubon Nebraska speaks to NRT about key role of birds in climate change talks

Kristal Stoner, executive director of Audubon Nebraska, spoke to NRT students on November 13, 2019, about the stance the National Audubon Society takes on climate change and the importance of birds to that.

NRT student serves on Native success panel

As a member of the Oglala Sioux Nation and a graduate student in civil engineering, Sydney James understands the barriers Native Americans may face in furthering their education. On October 18, 2019, she served on a panel, “Native People and Your Success,” and encouraged Native scholars to continue their education.

NRT students improve science communications

NRT students boosted their communications skills through trainings in September and October 2019 and are working with Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the university to produce videos communicating their research.

Soh aims to automate task planning in scenarios

Whether optimizing the fight against wildfires or minimizing the wait for a Lyft, the research of NRT professor Leen-Kiat Soh could transform the management of tasks and resources across various fields.

NRT professors onto early ecosystem detection

In medicine, the ability to screen for diseases before they wreak havoc on the human body has been revolutionary. University of Nebraska–Lincoln ecologist Dirac Twidwell said it’s time to transplant this model of proactivity to a field that’s very different from medicine, but equally consequential: agricultural resilience, or the ability of ecosystems to withstand rapid and sudden transitions to an undesired state.

NRT professors find U.S. ecosystems shifting

Whole ecosystems are shifting dramatically north in the Great Plains, a phenomenon likely linked to human influences such as climate change, says new University of Nebraska-Lincoln research that analyzed nearly 50 years’ worth of data on bird distributions.

NRT student gains publication through alliance

Doctoral student Katharine Hogan went from perks to publication by making good use of her NRT-paid membership in the Resilience Alliance.

NRT tours Western European water sites

In a learning adventure of a lifetime, nine NRT students and Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, NRT hydrology professor, traveled to The Netherlands, France and Spain from May 16 to June 6, 2019, to compare ancient and modern water structures there with ones in Nebraska.

Allen chosen to direct new resilience center

Craig Allen, director of the NRT at Nebraska, has taken the reigns as director also of the university’s new resilience center.

NRT counting bats at zoo

NRT students Daniel Rico and Christopher Fill have found that counting bats is far more difficult than counting sheep and it’s unlikely to put them to sleep anytime soon.

Castillo cofounds Latino organization

NRT master’s student Jazmin Castillo cofounded the organization Latins for Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in February 2019. Leading the organization with her are Dillon Hanson and Katerina Lozano, senior Fisheries and Wildlife majors. Wilma Gerena, business associate in the School of Natural Resources, serves as the organization’s adviser.

NRT students join water talks

The Nebraska Water Center hosts an annual seminar series at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to talk about Nebraska’s most precious natural resource, water. In spring 2019, NRT students dived into the conversation.

NRT featured in university research report

Nebraska’s NRT, director Craig Allen and the research of NRT student Daniel Rico figured prominently in the University of Nebraska’s annual research report, which came out in November 2018.

Twidwell questions planting of invasive trees

According to Dirac Twidwell, assistant professor of rangeland ecology and co-principal investigator of the National Research Traineeship program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Eastern redcedar is causing a broad-scale loss of grasslands in Nebraska. The Eastern redcedar has destroyed grasslands in some southern states, and it’s happening currently in Nebraska.

Ecology expert Lance Gunderson visits NRT

Professor Lance Gunderson ranks among the top ecologists in the world, so graduate student Manas Khan was impressed when Nebraska’s National Research Traineeship program brought the Emory University professor to campus to instruct 11 students on adaptive management August 14-17, 2018.