Ann Bybee-Finley
Bio
Dr. Bybee-Finley leads the Agroecology Program, directs the Agroecology Education Farm at North Carolina State University, and teaches CS 230 and CS 430. Before joining NC State, Dr. Bybee-Finley worked as a Research Agroecologist for the Agricultural Research Service at the United States Department of Agriculture.
Her work focuses on crop diversification practices as an adaptation strategy to climate change. Her research interests include intercropping, cover cropping, and assessing the multifunctionality of cropping systems. Dr. Bybee-Finley engages with statistical modeling, field experiments, and integrating human dimensions into research about farming practices.
Dr. Bybee-Finley manages the Diverse Rotations Improve Ecosystem Services (DRIVES) Projects which networks long-term experiments that have crop rotation treatments across North America. Long-term data across a broad range of growing conditions is critical to assessing the role of crop diversity under erratic conditions (droughts) or on slow-moving variables (soil characteristics). Using multiple metrics, like productivity, economic performance, or nutrient composition, can reveal the benefits and tradeoffs of more diverse cropping systems.
Education:
Ph.D., Agroecology with an emphasis in Human Dimensions, Cornell University (2020)
M.S., Agronomy, Cornell University (2016)
B.S., Biochemistry, West Virginia University (2011)
B.A., International Studies with an emphasis in Development, West Virginia University (2011
Publications
- Using a social‐ecological macrosystems framework to understand how human activities alter ecological synchrony , People and Nature (2026)
- Deriving general principles of agroecosystem multifunctionality with the Diverse Rotations Improve Valuable Ecosystem Services (DRIVES) network , Agronomy Journal (2024)
- Ecological synchrony in human-modified landscapes under a changing climate , bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (2024)
- Environmental conditions outweigh seeding rates for cover crop mixture performance across the Northeast US , Field Crops Research (2024)
- Legacy effects of crop diversity on weed-crop competition in maize production , npj Sustainable Agriculture (2024)
- Rotational complexity increases cropping system output under poorer growing conditions , One Earth (2024)
- Interseeded cover crop mixtures influence soil water storage during the corn phase of corn-soybean-wheat no-till cropping systems , Agricultural Water Management (2023)
- Participatory action research generates knowledge for Sustainable Development Goals , Frontiers in Ecology and Environment (2023)
- Quantifying the roles of intraspecific and interspecific diversification strategies in forage cropping systems , Field Crops Research (2023)
- Data from: Finding the right mix: a framework for selecting seeding rates for cover crop mixtures , eCommons (Cornell University) (2021)