Global food and beverage industry lacks transparency on climate goals and targets, and needs a clear path for monitoring, reporting, and verification of GHG emissions.
Reavis M. L., Ahlen J., Rudek J., and Naithani K. (2022) Evaluating greenhouse gas emissions and climate mitigation goals of the global food and beverage sector. Frontiers of Sustainable Food Systems, 5:789499. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2021.789499
Crop Modeling
A peaked response to accumulated growing degree day is a better functional form than one utilizing days after planting and cultivar-agnostic models perform equivalently to cultivar-specific models.
Ellie Kuhn, Beatriz Moreno-García, Michele Reba, Kusum Naithani, and Benjamin R. K. Runkle (2025) Modeling rice leaf area index and canopy height in the US Mid-South region. Agrosystems, Geosciences, and Environment. doi: 10.1002/agg2.70139
Field conditions are best suited to quantify phenotypic differences across different genotypes and non-sequential method was better at capturing the variability in photosynthesis.
Reavis M. L., Purcell L., Pereira A., and Naithani K. (2023) Effects of Measurement Methods and Growing Conditions on Phenotypic Expression of Photosynthesis in Diverse Rice Genotypes. Frontiers in Plant Science. Volume 14. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1106672
Soil Health
Logging and forest conversion significantly affect soil microbial diversity and can have lasting effects on carbon cycling in tropical montane forests.
Sniegocki R., Moon J. B., Rutrough A., Gireneus J., Seelan J. S. S., Weindorf D. C., Farmer M. C., and Naithani K. (2022) Recovery of soil microbial diversity and functions along a tropical montane forest disturbance gradient, Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10:853686. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2022.853686
neonMicrobe: R package for analyzing NEON marker gene sequence data.
Qin C., Bartelme R., Chung A., Fairbanks D., Lin Y., Liptzin D., Muscarella C., Naithani K., Peay K., Pellitier P., St. Rose A., Stanish L., Werbin Z., and Zhu K. (2021) From DNA sequences to microbial ecology: Wrangling NEON soil microbe data with the neonMicrobe R package. Ecosphere, 12 (11): e03842. doi: 10.1002/ecs2.3842.
Promising multivariate soil indices as indicators of wetland condition.
Moon J. B., Wardrop D. H., Smithwick E. A. H. & Naithani K. J. (2019) Fine-scale spatial homogenization of microbial habitats: a multivariate index of headwater wetland complex condition. Ecological Applications. 29(1), e0181.
Landscape metrics can be utilized to predict wetland microbial communities.
Moon J. B., Wardrop D. H., Bruns M. A. V., Miller R. M., and Naithani K. J. (2016) Land-use and land-cover effects on soil microbial community abundance and composition in headwater riparian wetlands. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 97: 215 – 233.
Pollinator and Pest Management
This research highlights the influence of family, nesting guilds, dietary preferences, social behavior, and emergence seasons on variations in mean proboscis lengths and foraging ranges among bees.
Stemet L. S., Biddinger D. J., Naithani K., Szalanski A. L., and Joshi N. K. (in review) Intertegular distance of wild bees and its use in estimating proboscis lengths and foraging ranges to better understand bee conservation ecology.
Sheep grazing reduces insect diversity.
Acharya R. S., Leslie T., Burke J., Naithani K., Fitting E., Loftin K., and Joshi N. K. (2024) Sheep grazing influences the abundance, diversity, and community composition of wild bees and other insects in livestock pastures. Ecological Indicators. Vol: 162, 111839. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.111839
Using nests with paper liners may accelerate pollinator population establishment and propagation in commercial orchards.
Joshi N. K., Naithani K., Biddinger D. J. (2020) Nest modification protects immature stages of the Japanese orchard bee (Osmia cornifrons) from invasion of a cleptoparasitic mite pest. Insects, 11(1), 65.
Coupled human and natural systems approach is needed to resolve human-elephant conflicts
Shaffer L. J., Khadka K. K., Van Den Hoek J. & Naithani K. J. (2019) Human-elephant conflict: A review of current management strategies and future directions. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6:235.
Orchard environment and crop management practices significantly influenced codling moth flight phenology.
Joshi N. K., Rajotte E. G., Naithani K. J., Krawczyk G. & Hull L. A. (2016) Population dynamics and flight phenology model of codling moth differ between commercial and abandoned apple orchard ecosystems. Frontiers in Physiology, 7:408.
Value of O. cornifrons as a pollinator in cherry orchard was demonstrated using an immunomarking method.
Biddinger D.J., Joshi N.K., Rajotte E.G., Halbrendt N.O., Pulig C., Naithani K.J. & Vaughn M. (2013). An immunomarking method to determine the foraging patterns of Osmia cornifrons and resulting fruit set in a cherry orchard. Apidologie, 44: 738-749.