{"id":2518,"date":"2017-11-21T13:38:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T18:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology-new\/?post_type=person&#038;p=2518"},"modified":"2025-04-24T10:28:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T14:28:35","slug":"jburk","status":"publish","type":"person","link":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/people\/jburk\/","title":{"rendered":"JoAnn Burkholder"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Education<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Ph.D.<\/strong>, Botanical Limnology, Michigan State University (1986)<\/p>\n<h3>Research Interests<\/h3>\n<p><em>Aquatic ecology and toxic dinoflagellates<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I am the Director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/caae.cals.ncsu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology<\/a> located in the Department of Applied Ecology at NCSU.\u00a0 Our research team has designed and maintained a 14-year ongoing research and monitoring program on the Neuse Estuary.\u00a0 We developed and patented an instrument that allows automated depth profiles of water quality on an hourly basis, 24\/7, to track environmental changes, examine the ecology of harmful algae, and improve assessment of fish kill causality.\u00a0 We also have designed and maintained a 6-year ongoing research and monitoring program in three major potable water supply reservoirs in North Carolina. We are working to combine our real-time, automated sampling capability with microarrays to detect toxic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), pesticides and other CECs, and microbial pathogens to improve early warning systems to safeguard public water supplies.\u00a0 We recently completed a decadal study on land use changes in the Neuse watershed, emphasizing the importance of both urban and agricultural pollutant sources. We documented a striking increase in ammonium concentrations, by more than 500%, in surface waters affected by numerous confined swine feed operations. The increased ammonium supply is significantly related to an increase in algal species such as the raphidophyte, <em>Heterosigma akashiwo,<\/em> that is potentially toxic to humans. \u00a0In earlier work, we co-discovered potentially toxic estuarine dinoflagellates (<em>Pfiesteria piscicida, P. shumwayae<\/em>), stimulated by nutrient over-enrichment, than can cause major fish kills. The findings provided the foundation for recent research by toxin chemists at NOAA (Charleston, SC), who described a group of potent<em> Pfiesteria <\/em>toxins, new to science, with potential application in treating memory disorders.<\/p>\n<h3>Web Resources<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/caae.cals.ncsu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/students\/graduate\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6403\" src=\"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2019\/05\/Learn-about-our-Graduate-Programs-300x114.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2019\/05\/Learn-about-our-Graduate-Programs-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2019\/05\/Learn-about-our-Graduate-Programs-768x292.png 768w, https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2019\/05\/Learn-about-our-Graduate-Programs-600x228.png 600w, https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2019\/05\/Learn-about-our-Graduate-Programs-460x175.png 460w, https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2019\/05\/Learn-about-our-Graduate-Programs-230x88.png 230w, https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2019\/05\/Learn-about-our-Graduate-Programs.png 820w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":100932,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"group":[274,279],"person_tag":[],"class_list":["post-2518","person","type-person","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","group-faculty","group-leadership"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/2518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/person"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/2518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99719,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/2518\/revisions\/99719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/group?post=2518"},{"taxonomy":"person_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/applied-ecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person_tag?post=2518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}