Website: http://biology.appstate.edu/
Connection to Sustainability: Sustaining long term water quality and quantity; Sustaining wildlife biodiversity; Conservation of rare and endangered organisms; Investigating the human impact to ecosystem viability and ecosystem fragmentation; Human and organism health/disease; Assessing how environmental factors contribute to human health issues; Examining extinction events.
Teaching: Ecotoxicology; Community based research; Conservation Biology; Aquatic Biology; Environmental Studies; Air Pollution Effects on Plants and People; Global Change Ecology.
Research: Protecting water quality locally; Dealing with after effects of spills; Studying the effects of long term development on water quality; Assessing the impact of remediation projects; Using algae to produce biofuels and using algae to clean up wastewater of nutrients and pharmaceuticals; The effect of dams and changing land use regimes on aquatic species and ecosystems; Studying the evolution of biodiversity in the landscape.
Student Engagement and Outreach Activities: Students are engaged in many of the research projects with faculty; Internships with the Park Service/Blue Ridge Parkway, and Appalachian Voices; Obtaining the Tree Campus USA designation; Listing all properties that the University owns including listing all streams, land use maps and a sustainability plan; Working with state and federal agencies for aquatic research; Educational outreach and awareness to local groups as requested; Department hosts an Animal Collections program to support teaching and student involvement with animal remains and live animals.