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Researching Ecology in the Farmscape

Meet the Applied Farmscape Ecology Research Collaborative and learn about their latest research

Scientists within the Farm Hub’s Applied Farmscape Ecology Research Collaborative (AFERC) work year-round to conduct multi-year studies on soil life, water quality, insects, birds, turtles, and meadows and, ultimately, share findings with farmers. AFERC was launched in 2019 as a network of scientists whose work directly connects to the Farm Hub’s mission of supporting agroecology research. The idea behind the collaborative is to support farmers, technical service providers and land managers in meeting the region’s ecological farming goals. In addition, at the annual Research Field Day held at the Farm Hub these collaborators present their research with both Farm Hub staff and members of the public. Learn more about the latest developments and meet the researchers in the photo and video galleries below. 

Click on the photos below to read about each researcher

Anne Bloomfield, Wildlife Ecologist

Carmen Greenwood, Conservation Biologist and Insect Ecologist

Claudia Knab-Vispo, Botanist

Conrad Vispo, Wildlife Ecologist

Jason Tesauro, Conservation Biologist

Noah Perlut, Ornithologist

Shafiul Chowdhury, Hydrogeologist

Erik Kiviat, Environmental Scientist

Gabriel Perron, Microbiologist

Will Yandik, Farmer and Independent Researcher

Anne 1
Anne 4
Ab and Bob
Carmen 2
Carmen 3
Claudia 1
Claudia 3
Conrad 1
Conrad 2
Erik 3
Shafiul 2
Will 1
Will 3
Noah 3
Gabriel 1
Gabriel 3

Watch videos of our researchers in action!

Shafiul Chowdhury, Scientist and Hydrogeology Associate Professor
Jason Tesauro, Conservation Biologist
Noah Perlut, Ornithologist and Professor
Will Yandik, Farmer and Independent Researcher 

Anne Bloomfield

Ecologist and Hudson Valley Farm Hub Applied Farmscape Ecology Program Manager

“Since 2016, I have been documenting the on-farm habitats that birds use on the farm year-round. Often there is a heavier focus on nesting habitat, or habitat used during the breeding season. My long-term study collects data on not just breeding season habitat but also migratory and overwintering habitat as well. This includes both production areas such as crops and cover crops as well as the wilder areas of the farm such as unmown strips, the floodplain forest, and wet meadows. The project continues to cover a significant portion of the farm year-round via surveys done on foot recording birds by sight, sound, and the habitat they are using. I do this with the help of two volunteers, Dixon Onderdonk and Bob Miller. Importantly, we have conducted the surveys in the same way using the same methods since 2016. Now we are grateful to have a robust database of bird habitat use on the farm for the last seven years. In 2024 we will be focusing on getting all these data in good shape to be entered into a publicly accessible database on our website. When the database is done, anybody will be able to read, access or download the habitat use information for interest, research, or habitat management purposes.”

Carmen Greenwood

Conservation Biologist and Insect Ecologist, SUNY Cobleskill
“This past year I have been quantifying changes in the soil-dwelling invertebrate community as the native meadow trials evolve over time. We are seeing changes in the diversity of soil-dwelling invertebrates, as well as changes in which taxa are most abundant. The same project will continue. We’d like to get a bigger (longer term) data set to really assess what is happening below ground.”

Claudia Knab-Vispo

Botanist, Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program

The Native Meadow Trial, led by Conrad Vispo and Claudia Knab-Vispo, moved into its seventh year at the Farm Hub where the researchers continued to monitor the native plant meadows for plant composition and insect populations. Regarding the botanical/management aspect of the trial–the seeded wildflowers and grasses in the native meadow trials got established well and—so far—continue to dominate the vegetation; however, in some instances, native Cottonwood trees have also established themselves from seeds that were blown in from the nearby floodplain forest and—if they were left unmanaged—would slowly convert these meadows into a forest. This is avoided by mowing the meadows once a year in early spring, effectively coppicing the Cottonwood, which remains a component of the vegetation, but is not allowed to grow into trees.

Continued vegetation monitoring and low-effort management (which would be feasible for a farmer to maintain) to document the cost/benefit of native wildflower seedings on farms over at least a period of 10 years since establishment. Such detailed, long-term data on wildflower seedings are rarely collected and therefore very valuable.

Conrad Vispo

Wildlife Ecologist, Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program

The Native Meadow Trial, led by Vispo and Claudia Knab-Vispo, moved into its seventh year at the Farm Hub where the researchers continued to monitor the native plant meadows for plant composition and insect populations. “We are seeing long-term trends in the plant community occurring as these beds continue to evolve over longer periods of time. What does this mean for their ability to support on-farm beneficials?” asks Vispo. Vispo has also been engaged in standardized transect monitoring with the goals of collecting long-term data on insect populations to assess insect decline and explore insect ecology in both cultivated and wilder habitats (specifically, fields and floodplain forest). 

“We do have strong evidence of there being exchange of organisms between forest and field. This is not surprising, but I think few people realize that a healthy on-farm ecology is closely tied to a healthy off-farm landscape,” Vispo says.

Jason Tesauro

Conservation Biologist, Jason Tesauro Consulting LLC
“This year through our radiotelemetry, we documented the use of a winter rye crop by several adult female turtles, both as a basking habitat and as a travel corridor between two streams. We suspect that some wood turtles may have also nested in this field…As part of our year-end report, we are using the telemetry data collected between 2019-2023 to develop a wood turtle management plan for the Farm Hub that will identify critical wood turtle habitat areas and provide general guidance for avoiding or reducing farm-related wood turtle mortality. We are also reaching out to other farmers within the Hurley Flats and elsewhere in the Hudson Valley to explore the possibility of expanding wood turtle conservation based on what we’ve learned at Farm Hub.”

Noah Perlut

Ornithologist, University of New England
“In 2021 I started the grassland songbird study at the Farm Hub with the goal of understanding the local movements and migration of grassland songbirds, particularly Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows. How similar are Bobolink and Savannah Sparrow movement patterns to a population in Vermont that I’ve studied since 2002? Do Bobolinks visit other nearby grassland patches surrounding the Farm Hub? If so, how far will they travel? The Farm Hub asked me to come here to understand more about the population that is breeding here. It is a new population, established around 2016. Globally, Bobolink populations are declining by at least 3% a year since the 1960s. Given these declines, the Farm Hub is contributing to species restoration by creating and maintaining this habitat. We spend the summer following these birds lives—their reproduction, survival and movement. We will be back in 2024 to continue this work, but not before we analyze the exciting migration data that we retrieved in 2023.”

Shafiul Chowdhury

Scientist and Hydrogeology Associate Professor, SUNY New Paltz
“My primary focus was the research I conducted to determine the minimum amount of fertilizer application for maximum yield for butternut squash. We collected all of the necessary data at the end of October 2023. Currently, we have been analyzing that data. Based on our findings, we will plan the design of the experiment for 2024.I will shift the focus of my research for soil regeneration (improvement of soil health) by finding the necessary parameters/ingredients that get depleted over time due to agricultural activities.”

Erik Kiviat

Executive Director and Co-Founder, Hudsonia

“The main research project that I have been focused on over the past year is studying the wood turtle population to learn how to better protect them from agricultural hazards.This year we completed five years of radio-tracking wood turtles at the Farm Hub and other farm landscapes. We have been analyzing how hot weather and high streamflow are related to turtles moving farther from the stream channel toward cultivated fields.”

Photo: Lea Stickle and Erik Kiviat

Will Yandik

Farmer and independent researcher
“I am interested in learning more about the winter habitats that sparrows choose at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub particularly how they interact with, feed, and shelter in human-altered habitats. For three years, I have been investigating how winter sparrows use one specific class of cover crops — those dominated by the grass Sorghum-sudangrass, weighing the relative habitat values of sterile (no seeds) and non-sterile (seeded) cultivars. When seeded sorghum-sudangrass is present, birds appear more abundant, more diverse, with greater site fidelity (they stay in the same place longer) and may possibly be in better fitness than birds found in other unmanaged habitats. The project continues to focus on banding Song and Savannah Sparrows to better understand the relative amount of time they spend in each habitat on the farm. Multiyear data is also needed on health metrics to smooth out natural annual variations. We continue to seek to understand if wintering birds remain at the Hub to breed in the spring (so far, the evidence points to the fact that they don’t, and that winter and spring populations are distinctive and separate). Quality winter habitat may still be critical for the life histories of these sparrows, even if they ultimately choose to breed somewhere off the Farm Hub. Expanding areas of current research involves reaching out to regional farmers to gauge their interest in leaving winter plantings of sorghum-sudangrass, understanding potential effects that sorghum-sudangrass has on following cash crops, and understanding how such plantings might provide wildlife habitat within the framework of carbon sequestration. We now know that planting sorghum-sudangrass provides food for winter sparrows, and future research focuses on if that management has tangible benefits for both birds and farm.”
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