Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Supervisor/Lab: Matteo Petit Bon
Lab website

Coastal high-latitude ecosystems are experiencing rapid climate change, including increased frequency and intensity of flooding. This project will examine ecosystem properties along a flooding gradient in Arctic coastal wetlands of the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta, Alaska, with the goal of understanding how altered flooding regimes influence ecosystem functioning. Following field collections in July 2026, the selected student will begin on or after August 1 and work in the laboratory to process plant and soil samples. This will include measuring and preparing samples for analysis of key plant functional traits (e.g., specific leaf area and leaf and root carbon and nitrogen content), as well as soil properties (e.g., nutrient availability and microbial biomass). The student will gain hands-on experience with standard laboratory techniques in functional and ecosystem ecology, sample processing workflows, and data management, contributing to a broader research program on ecosystem responses to climate change.

In parallel, the student will receive training in basic data analysis and visualization using R, with a focus on quantifying plant-environment relationships and identifying patterns across the flooding gradient. This opportunity is particularly suited for students with interests in plant and ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, or global change biology. Motivation, attention to detail, and willingness to engage in both laboratory and analytical components are essential.

To apply, please email a brief statement of interest and relevant experience to mpetitb@ncsu.edu. Additional information about the lab is available at https://tedlab-ecology.com.

Topics: Stream Restoration, Aquatic Insects, Ecology
Supervisor/Lab: Brad Taylor
Email: brad.taylor@ncsu.edu

We develop innovative ecological ways to improve stream restoration – a multimillion-
dollar industry in North Carolina. Ecological restoration in general and stream
restoration in particular is plagued by slower biological recovery compared to physical
recovery. Many adult stream insects use emergent rocks (rocks partially extending
above water) as egg-laying habitat. Females land on emergent rocks, crawl
underwater, and attach their eggs to the underside. As such, the number of emergent
rocks may limit larval stream insect abundance and diversity, and our prior work shows
adding emergent rocks to restored streams increases egg and larval insect abundance
and diversity. We are continuing this line of research to further develop ways emergent
rock egg-laying habitat can be included in stream restoration designs and policies.
Interested students can be involved in the laboratory assisting with identification of
larval insects and estimating eggs per egg mass using photogrammetry, or outdoors in
piedmont streams censusing emergent rocks for eggs and manipulating emergent rocks to make them more hydraulically stable and attractive to female insects at local field sites. Current positions may include course credit or an hourly stipend during summer and fall.

Topics: Stream Ecology, Aquatic insects
Supervisor/Lab: Alonso Ramirez
Email: alonso.ramirez@ncsu.edu
Lab website

We are studying the effects of water temperature on the growth and development of aquatic insects. Water temperature is increasing due to climate change and urban cover. While this is happening globally, in tropical regions these increases in temperature could have devastating effects. Tropical streams have constant and stable temperatures and aquatic biota are adapted to those stable thermal conditions. Temperature increases could push tropical aquatic insects beyond their tolerance limits. Students could support our ongoing research and explore potential projects using our laboratory setup.

The Yates Mill Aquatic Conservation Laboratory exists to promote conservation of North Carolina’s most imperiled freshwater species through propagation, research, education, and public outreach. Our primary work is conservation aquaculture of our state’s rarest fishes, mussels, and snails. Volunteer opportunities exist for undergraduate students interested in aquatic ecology and able to commit to a regular and recurring schedule. These opportunities can range from assistance with aquatic animal care up to conducting an individual research project under the supervision of lab staff. Students may pursue an area of our work they find most engaging, but available research topics will vary by time of year, overall time commitment, and aptitude. Interested individuals should contact: Chris Eads (chris_eads@ncsu.edu).

The research focus of the NC State Apiculture program is to further our understanding of honey bee biology and to better our ability of bee management. To accomplish these goals, we are involved in various experiments that range from highly technical and theoretical to very applied and useful for the average beekeeper. We additionally have several research projects that involve wild and native bees and pollinator ecology more generally. Projects range from primarily field based to lab and computer-based projects.

We are offering 1-3 credit hours of research on the following projects:

Honey Bees:

• Honey bee male reproduction and rearing – Honey bee males are notoriously difficult to culture in vitro. Students working on this project will experiment with different methods of keeping males in the lab and assessing reproductive consequences of developing through adulthood outside the hive.
• Social buffering of agrichemical toxicity – As social organisms, honey bees within the hive are protected by foragers, that make riskier interface with human-influenced environments. Students working on this project will perform contact tracing using a fluorescent dye model to assess material transfer between individuals.
• Honey bee foraging behavior and brood pheromones – Honey bees forage not to meet their own needs, but rather those of their larval siblings. As such the brood produce several pheromones that regulate adult foraging behavior. Students working on this project will monitor colonies for food collection behavior in response to synthetic pheromones.
• Reproductive development in commercial packages – Honey bee workers are famously, but at least somewhat reversibly sterile. Workers that are isolated from the brood and queen quickly develop to an “anarchistic” state where they produce unfertilized eggs, a fatal condition for the hive. Students working on this project will assess workers in various commercial contexts for the average development of the anarchical condition through physiological assays.
• Algorithmic training of honey bee stores recognition – Reliable assessment of honeybee usage of the wax comb requires significant observation, with photographic methods and automated recognition potentially providing increased resolution and repeatability of colony growth and storage measures with less human labor. Students working on this project will assist in training algorithmic recognition programs to appropriately recognize the different stores on honey bee frames.

Wild Bees

• Bees as biosensors – Pollinators sample the environment widely and in places that humans rarely get to; however understanding where they go and what they collect requires detailed work. Students working on this project will be identifying pollen collected from an extensive bee monitoring project throughout North Carolina to assess what plants bees collect pollen from and what affects their choices.
• Environmentally friendly carpenter bee repellent – Humans make their structures out of dead wood, which is coincidentally exactly what Carpenter bees do too; to the chagrin of deck builders everywhere. There are manifold options for repelling or killing carpenter bees, and a lot of them are either ineffective or frankly morally unsound (we don’t advocate killing wild bees for convenience). Students working on this project will explore a mimic of an ancient hymenopteran pheromone, that smells like grape drink and is used in human foods, to modify carpenter bee nesting preference.
• Bioacoustic monitoring of pollinator activity – Monitoring for bees widely requires a great deal of travel and sampling time, that is taxing both on researchers and the insect populations. Students working on this project will explore a novel method of assessing pollinator activity using the sounds they make while collecting flowers to identify “pollinators.” 
• Bees and beekeeping in boardgames – animals impact human thinking and culture in broad-sweeping ways, but not necessarily always in the ways we expect. Bees in particular are highly charismatic and present throughout human art, kitsch, and even gaming. Students working on this project will explore the differences of representation of bees and beekeeping in gaming to learn what these games are teaching the players about their subject, and how humans respond to these representations.

We’re especially looking for students that are interested in multi-level observations of bees from the community down through to physiology that addresses real-world problems in conservation, apiculture, and human-animal interactions.

For information on available opportunities in the lab, email: Bradley Metz (bnmetz@ncsu.edu)