{"id":20998,"date":"2026-01-08T08:16:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=20998"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:26:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:26:23","slug":"elizabethtown-college-professor-receives-national-science-foundation-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2026\/01\/08\/elizabethtown-college-professor-receives-national-science-foundation-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College Professor Receives National Science Foundation Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Northington and colleagues conduct research in South Greenland<\/p><\/div>\n

Elizabethtown College Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences Dr. Robert Northington recently received a $200,470 grant from the<\/span> National Science Foundation (NSF<\/span><\/a>) to continue his collaborative research,<\/span> \u201cQuantifying Biogeochemical Cycles of Sub-Arctic Agroecosystems and Forecasting Future Scenarios.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The project will investigate how farming practices and freshwater changes spanning the United States and Greenland affect Arctic and Sub-Arctic ecosystems, addressing concerns of Arctic farmers and furthering international connections with the scientific community. Engaging local Arctic farmers, Northington\u2019s project will train multiple early-career scholars, meeting the aims of translational research in Arctic contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy colleagues and I have been developing relationships with Greenlandic sheep farmers over the last few years to address the farmers\u2019 concerns over the amount and quality of freshwater resources in South Greenland, and how this may affect their livelihood over the coming years,\u201d Northington said. \u201cThis work is important not only because it examines climate change on the ground in real-time but also provides a truly collaborative relationship among scientists and indigenous stakeholders in the region.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Northington\u2019s research examines climate-driven expansion of agriculture occurring across the Arctic system as accelerated warming has lengthened growing seasons, allowing for more intensive farming practices and crop diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

This northward agricultural shift presents potential benefits such as food security in the region, but the threats to the biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem resilience from the changes in land use and hydrology are not yet fully understood.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project provides opportunities for<\/span> Etown Biology and Environmental Science<\/span><\/a> undergraduate students to gain hands-on fieldwork experience and firsthand insight into the implications of environmental issues frequently discussed in their curriculum. This summer, Environmental Science and Public Health major Elizabeth Wasylyk \u201926 will accompany Northington to Greenland to conduct on-site research with collaborators from the University of Maine.<\/span><\/p>\n

The NSF grant began in January 2026 and is expected to continue through December 2028.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabethtown College Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences Dr. Robert Northington recently received a $200,470 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue his collaborative research, \u201cQuantifying Biogeochemical Cycles of Sub-Arctic Agroecosystems and Forecasting Future Scenarios.\u201d\u00a0 The project will investigate how farming practices and freshwater changes spanning the United States and Greenland affect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":20999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1338,775],"tags":[2595,197,1350,749,338,193,2442,2594],"class_list":["post-20998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-and-research","category-campus","tag-biology-and-environmental-sciences","tag-elizabethtown-college","tag-etown","tag-grant","tag-grants","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-nsf","tag-south-greenland","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20998"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21005,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998\/revisions\/21005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}