A wildlife behavioral ecologist at Penn State is part of a multi-institution team that received funding from Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems, a international three-year initiative that aims to spark new science exploring neurobiological responses to rapidly changing environments.
Jason Keagy, assistant research professor of wildlife behavioral ecology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, is a member of a three-scientist team that will receive $180,000 - $60,000 for each member - from the first year of the initiative to support research related to how fish-foraging behavior may ultimately affect the global carbon cycle, which refers to how carbon moves among land, oceans and the atmosphere. Keagy, Mara Freilich, assistant professor at Brown University, and Diana Rennison, assistant professor at University of California, San Diego, comprise one of six research teams funded by Scialog out of 27 initially proposed projects. New competitions for projects, teams and funding will occur for the second and third years of the initiative.
Using the freshwater three-spined stickleback fish as a model, the team will explore how the fish's genetic changes and behavioral adaptation to a warming climate impacts ecosystem functions.
"The idea is that fish like stickleback forage on zooplankton, which feed on phytoplankton that sequester a lot of carbon," Keagy said. "Fish foraging may - likely will - change depending on temperature and whether they can adapt to temperature change. For example, higher temperature might increase metabolism, which would increase foraging. But foraging can also be reduced if thermal stress is too high."
The team's research plan is ambitious, Keagy explained, noting that members are specifically interested in how fish-foraging behavior feeds into the global carbon cycle.
"We'll be measuring foraging behavior directly, as well as zooplankton and phytoplankton numbers and species composition as well as nutrient levels," he said. "I am excited to investigate a novel intersection between fish brains, behavior and carbon cycling, generating knowledge that will lead to new understanding of the complex interactions between organisms and past and future environmental change."
Scialog - short for "science + dialog" - was created by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 2010 to accelerate breakthroughs through intensive interdisciplinary collaboration and community-building. In March 2025, the inaugural meeting of the Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems Scialog took place, bringing together early-career researchers from across neuroscience, ecology, chemistry, physics and engineering to form teams and propose high-risk, high-reward ideas on the spot.
"I was supported by a College of Agricultural Sciences Early Career Faculty Professional Development Award to travel to the conference where these teams and grant proposals were developed," Keagy said. "The conference was a unique and intense experience where we were pushed to think beyond our disciplinary boundaries and be creative with risky but potentially transformative ideas."
In addition to Keagy, three other Penn State faculty also are fellows with this program: Nelson Roque, assistant professor of human development and family studies; Tao Zhou, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics; and Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics. Applications for the 2026 program are now being accepted through the Scialog website until Sept. 1.
Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State, is one of six facilitators for this Scialog series.
"The Scialog programs are carefully designed to recruit early-career scientists from different disciplines to develop new collaborations to tackle complex global challenges," she said. "During the conference, the scientists met in groups and in pairs to discuss different questions related to how neural systems can influence responses to rapid environmental changes, identifying the knowledge gaps and technical advances need to tackle these questions. The researchers formed cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional teams to develop proposals."
Grozinger also presented a keynote talk at the conference. In "Mechanisms Underlying Resiliency to Changing Ecosystems: from Genes to Landscapes," she outlined her lab's work studying the sensory, physiological, developmental and genetic factors that may underlie the behavioral variation allowing some bee species and populations to thrive while others decline.
Grozinger also shared the Beescape app her team developed to help beekeepers, gardeners, growers and land managers use data to enhance conservation efforts. It shows a "bee's eye view" of landscape resources such as nesting habitat, availability of flowering plants by season and risks such as pesticide use levels in selected areas.
Her team also is creating a graduate training program to help students develop artificial intelligence-enabled monitoring systems using cameras to identify and track insects.
Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems is funded by Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation and The Kavli Foundation.
