This blog was written by Dr. Emily Nastase who defended her dissertation in August 2024 at North Carolina State University. Emily was a 2023 Science to Action Fellow working with Dr. Adam Terando (Southeast CASC) and Dr. Jaime Collazo (NCSU).
 

A little about Emily

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It was birding that sparked my interest in studying ecology. It took me by surprise—I had never been interested in birds, or even nature, until I took a study abroad course to Panama in the final year of my undergraduate program. On that fateful trip, we trudged through coastal swamps trying to catch and band songbirds… and I’ve been hooked ever since! Ten years later, here I am pursuing a career in ecology, and I couldn’t be happier. 

In the fall of 2020, I was excited to start my graduate program at North Carolina State University, where I’d study a population of Henslow’s Sparrows (Centronyx henslowii) in eastern North Carolina. The Henslow’s Sparrow is a grassland specialist species in need of conservation due to long term population declines throughout its range. In North Carolina, the species is found at just two sites during the breeding season. 

These sites are managed as grasslands, which is what makes them appealing to Henslow’s. But without adequate habitat management, the Henslow’s and other grassland species would be lost from the landscape. Variable and extreme future climate conditions pose threats to these habitats and may prove limiting to habitat management, thus requiring decision makers to consider how their conservation objectives will be affected by climate change in the future.

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What was my S2A Fellowship about?

For my Science to Action Fellowship, I proposed a project to expand upon my dissertation research and view Henslow’s Sparrow conservation through a climate lens. My goals were to contextualize how habitat management in eastern North Carolina may be impacted when accounting for the future effects of climate change and to develop risk assessment tools to assist managers in the region meet their conservation objectives using prescribed fire. The outcome of my fellowship was actionable science to help conservation managers meet their habitat goals in a future characterized by changing climate conditions.

I was paired with Dr. Adam Terando, Southeast CASC Research Ecologist, as my USGS mentor for the fellowship. Together with my academic mentor, Dr. Jaime Collazo, we developed models to quantify how prescribed burn opportunities in eastern North Carolina may change later in the century based on future climate projections and we simulated management scenarios to illustrate how the Henslow’s Sparrow population may respond to various habitat management decisions.

How was my experience as a Fellow?

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My experience as a 2023 Science to Action Fellow was a positive one—I accomplished the goals of my proposed project, provided actionable information to assist in the conservation of a vulnerable songbird species, and developed new skills in the process. My favorite part of the past year was learning from my mentors and coding models to test our hypotheses. Learning how to incorporate climate data into analyses will undoubtedly be useful in my career! The greatest challenge during my time as a Fellow was when I hosted a stakeholder workshop for prescribed fire users in the region—the event went well, but coordinating an in-person participatory workshop is a lot of work! I admit that conducting this fellowship during my final year as a graduate student was stressful at times due to the added workload, but I am proud of what I accomplished and grateful for the experience. 

My advice for current and future S2A Fellows? 

To all future S2A Fellows: embrace the fellowship and the amazing research you’re doing. Know that your work will have a positive impact on the community or system you’re working in. It’s a unique experience as a graduate student to conduct actionable science, manage an independent research project, and gain working experience with stakeholders and professionals in the field. Overall, the Science to Action Fellowship was a wonderful opportunity and worth the time!