Healthcare workers gather samples from infected COVID-19 patients to help researchers understand how the disease spreads in the home.
Katherine Malinski, a UNC PhD student, sits for a portrait at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Central Crops Research Station. Malinski studies how increasing temperatures affect the relationship between a hornworm species, a parasitoid wasp, and two hornworm host plants.
A great blue heron is seen at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach.
UNC researcher Li Qian’s work explores repairing damaged human heart cells using retroviruses and DNA after a heart attack or cardiac injury.
Patrick Truethard, assistant head of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’ Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Lab, studies the evolution of nearby galaxies.
A kayak trail winds through the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. The swamp is the largest blackwater swamp in North America and is home to hundreds of plants and animal species. Being a peatland, it also stores huge amounts of carbon, filters water, and is mitigation for both flooding and drought. Recently, the refuge has been under threat due to nearby mining permits.
View of the Mattaponi River in Mattaponi, VA.
UNC doctoral candidate Haley Plaas, along with a grad student, inspect a harmful algal bloom in Edenton, NC.
Members of the Fodrie lab at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences plant artificial seagrass off the coast of North Carolina. Their research explores what type of seagrass structure marine life prefer in order to best approach restoring these important aquatic environments.
UNC student Jared Richards inventories cephalopod specimen at the Smithsonian Institution Museum Support Center.
John Gerwin, ornithology research curator at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, poses for a portrait in the museum’s collections area. Gerwin researches the life cycles of migratory birds, with a focus on their breeding biology.
Lily Hughes, research curator of ichthyology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, poses for a portrait at the museum’s Prairie Ridge Ecostation. Hughes combines data from collections with genomics to better understand fish diversity. Biodiversity loss has been and continues to be a threat to the well-being of the planet — losing even one animal or plant species can have ripple effects throughout entire ecosystems.
An osprey has a successful catch at Hog Island Wildlife Management Area in Surry, VA.
View from the Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park.
Students at Christopher Newport University plant Atlantic white cedar seedlings. The project is studying how the trees respond to increased salinity from sea level rise.
A view from Sand Harbor State Park in Nevada.
Research technician Tyler Pereira poses for a portrait in the UNC Biology Greenhouse.
A garter snake rests after eating a fledgling at Little Creek Reservoir in Toano, VA.
A researcher from NC State University walks up a creek during water-sampling in order to monitor PFAS in the environment.
Cypress knees and a young American alligator are seen in Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
Elizabeth Moore holds an Appalachian brown butterfly, one of about 175 butterfly species found in North Carolina. Butterflies and moths are indicator species — animals whose abundance and health provides information on the overall condition of their ecosystem.
Coharie tribe members and local volunteers plant vegetables in the tribe’s six-acre community garden in Sampson County, NC.
Christopher Newport University students quiz each other in an anatomy and physiology class.
Left: Details of a minke whale’s stomach after it washed ashore deceased in Corolla, NC. Right: Haley Stratton, a postdoc resident at the NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine, holds the whale’s scapula during the necropsy.
A research technician poses for a portrait after suiting up in a high-security BSL-3 lab.
Chelsea Blake, a conservation project manager at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, poses for a portrait. Blake helped open two time capsules from the now-removed Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, VA.
UNC researchers chat while conducting experiments on the efficacy of masks in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
UNC students Ruth Perkins and Jordan Teacey examine a pottery fragment during their laboratory methods in archaeology class.