Nicole Kucherov
2023 - 2026 FFAR Fellow
Introduction
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) is pleased to announce the sixth cohort of graduate students to be accepted to the FFAR Fellows Program.
Nicole Kucherov is a doctoral student at Kansas State University and was selected as a FFAR Fellow studying Entomology.
Keep reading to learn more about Nicole's research and why she applied to be a FFAR Fellow.
About Me
Growing up, I spent a lot of time outdoors. I remember identifying insects, plants and birds with my grandmother in her backyard. From a young age, I always had a terrarium housing something I was exploring from caterpillars and tadpoles to salamanders and garden snakes. During high school, I was on my high school Envirothon team, where I learned about ecosystems services, water pollution, and resource management. During college, I was passionate about conservation, climate change, and ecosystem restoration, and worked in ichthyology and marine biology labs. After college, I went on to become a high school science teacher and lead my own Envirothon teams.
After years of teaching, I decided to pursue my master’s degree in the field of conservation biology and became interested in insect-plant interactions. My master’s degree research focused on the effect of landscape change and climate on butterfly populations. Overall, I was interested in how changing landscapes and host plant availability affected insects. On my own land, I experimented with native plant landscaping to feed pollinators and herbivorous insects in order to support a healthy native ecosystem.
From a human-health perspective, I worry about pesticide use; its effect on non-target insects, our water, soil, and human health. I also know that insects are developing resistance to many of our current pesticides, causing farmers to spray more or suffer losses. Food and agriculture research combines my personal interests in a way that is helpful to farmers, allowing me to become part of the solution to global issues including food security, health, and climate change.
Why the FFAR Fellowship?
I applied to the FFAR Fellows program in order to become more involved in the food and agricultural community and thus make my research more applicable to the real world. My desire for my career is that my research will be relevant and helpful to farmers, as well as to the environment. I believe that participating in the Fellows program with a cohort of other individuals who share similar goals will help me to develop into a stronger scientist and leader by strengthening skills like networking, working on multidisciplinary teams, science communication, presentations, and conflict resolution.
I am excited to learn more about other aspects of agricultural systems and how my research fits within the larger context. Now and in my future career, I want my research to be driven by real world problems and easily applied in industry to help solve current issues in agriculture in a sustainable manner. My master's degree program focused on community conservation, and that to be effective our research needs to be driven by the communities in the areas that we are trying to conserve or restore. I believe the same holds true in agriculture; my research needs to be guided by the needs of the agricultural community and communicated effectively in order to be relevant. The FFAR Fellows program will help me to connect with the agricultural community and prepare me to make the best impact that I can in my future.
My Research
My research focuses on the effects of landscape and climate on insect communities. I am looking at this from three different perspectives; invasive insect species, pest insects, and pollinators. Insects are an integral part of the farming system, both as beneficial additions to pollination or pest control and as harmful pests. Over 100 of the crops grown in the United States depend on pollinators, while many of the crops that do not depend on them, such as soy, still benefit from insect pollination with a significant increase in yield. However, 40% of crop losses globally were due to pests in 2021.
As climate and landscape changes, we are also facing the introduction of new invasive insect pests. To stop invasive insect pests before they become established, we need to know: What are the areas of initial invasion? How do they spread within the landscape? Do certain landscapes deter insects from infesting fields? My research seeks to answer these questions at various scales, as well as the overall effect of landscape on insect communities. At the largest scale, I model the effect of landscape composition and climate factors on the occurrence of invasive insect pests, using presence/absence within counties. This allows us to identify areas with specific landscape and climate characteristics which are most favorable to these specific pests, and which facilitate their spread within the landscape.
I am also examining the abundance of all pests and pollinators within individual agricultural fields to identify relationships with surrounding landscape and climate factors as well as management practices. Are certain pests more likely to be found in soybean fields surrounded by higher percentages of land used for agriculture? Does the border, either agricultural field or natural area, affect the composition of the insect community within the field?
I enjoy talking to the farmers that are letting me conduct my research in their fields. They are so knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. The final portion of my research will include interviewing farmers about landscape-specific management practices to see which sustainable agriculture practices are being adopted and why, and how my research findings can be applied in the real world.
Sponsor
A scholarship from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research Rockey FFAR Fellows Fund supports my inclusion in the FFAR Fellows program.
More About Me
When I am not sweeping for insects in soybean fields, identifying bugs under microscopes, or running models on my computer... I can be found with my family. I enjoy being outside hiking, kayaking, fossil-hunting, and gardening. I like reading non-fiction to learn more about the environment, lives of fascinating scientists, and fun travel books. I also spend a lot of time reading about monster trucks, dinosaurs, and superheroes with my son.
To learn more about this year's FFAR Fellows, return to the main page.
For more information on the FFAR Fellows Program please visit the FFAR Fellows website or contact the FFAR Fellows Program Director Rebecca Dunning, at ffarfellows@ncsu.edu
