DrElsa Youngsteadt

My research on insect biodiversity and ecology is motivated by curiosity and urgency. I am fascinated by how insects cope with novel anthropogenic environments—particularly in cities and towns—and am driven to mitigate global insect declines. As a thermal biologist, I seek to understand and predict insect responses to a warming climate: To what extent can behavioral thermoregulation, physiological adaptation, or local habitat management mitigate effects of warming on insect populations, communities, and ecosystem functions? As a spatial conservation ecologist, I seek to quantify landscape connectivity for insects in complex environments such as cities, and to understand its effects on insect populations. My study organisms are most often bees, ants, and butterflies. I use field methods to document insect abundance, diversity, and behavior, then link these observations with physiological assays, landscape-scale remote sensing data, or simulation models.

I am committed to research dissemination and application, particularly among urban gardeners and land managers. 

My PhD is in entomology, from North Carolina State University (2008). I also held my first faculty position at North Carolina State University as Assistant, then Associate, Professor of Applied Ecology from 2018 - 2026.