Cornell CALS

Soil testing: @ccecornell Harvest New York runs the Community Gardens Soil Testing Program, which offers free test results and advice to home gardeners anywhere in the state. @soilhealth1 @nyagandmarkets news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/0…

For four days each February, volunteers fan out around the globe to record local bird sightings, capturing a remarkable worldwide snapshot of avian populations. The event, co-run by the Lab of Ornithology, is known as the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)—and it just keeps getting bigger. The 2026 count drew (per initial numbers) some 1.15 million people from 216 countries or eBird subregions. They made 1.24 million Merlin identifications and submitted nearly 470,000 eBird checklists—all told, spotting more than 8,200 avian species. And here’s another whopping number: this year, GBBC participants made nearly a quarter-million submissions of media to the Lab’s Macaulay Library, the archive that houses more than 95 million photos, videos, and sounds. Check out alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/bi… for a small sampling of the eye-popping images submitted during the 2026 bird count.

An un-bee-lievable discovery made right near our Ithaca campus! 🐝

On a @BloombergTV about viral food trends, Miguel Gomez explains how influencers can create demand spikes that supply chains struggle to meet, exposing farmers + producers to volatility + quality risks. @CornellMBA @CornellDyson @CornellCALS youtube.com/watch?v=2Vgaux…

Flowers, frisbees, and fresh air: Spring at Cornell, across decades ☀🌷🌸 Photos courtesy of the @Cornell_Library Rare and Manuscript Collections.

Announcing the 2026 student awardees at Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability! ⭐️ With 40 projects & $325k+ in funding to support student-led research, these awards reinforce our commitment to training the next generation of sustainability leaders. news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/0…

CALS was proud to showcase support for rural communities across NY at the Rural Resources Fair in Albany yesterday. From soil health to pollinator research, our work was on display. Thanks to @senfernandez34, Assemblywoman @DonnaLupardo and all who stopped by.

Happy National Ag Day from CALS, ranked among the top ag programs globally with multiple number one U.S. placements across major rankings. We are grateful for the CALS community and the many farm and food producers across New York and beyond who push us to the top in ag!

Joining us in welcoming Emily back to Cornell and CALS! 🎉

Thank you @RepRileyNY for introducing the NSF Plant Biology Act to support critical food systems research. At CALS, NSF funding drives fundamental plant and microbial biology science that benefits food and agriculture producers. congress.gov/bill/119th-con…

Farmers today face growing risks—from climate change & extreme weather to volatile markets & rising costs. Meeting these challenges requires stronger connections between research, finance & the ag sector. Learn how we work w/ partners to make an impact: news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/0…

Monarch butterflies are disappearing, but new @Cornell research offers hope. Scientists studied 28 native wildflower species and found ways to boost seed germination, helping restore critical habitat for monarchs and other pollinators. 🦋🌼 🔗 cals.cornell.edu/news/2026/02/r…

Happy #WorldWildlifeDay! Join us in recognizing the importance of conserving wildlife and the ecosystems they depend on. @WildlifeCornell works towards a healthy future for wildlife, people, and planet. Because we need nature, and now nature needs us.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has directed $1.1 million to support the new Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences New York Soil Health Climate Smart Agriculture Fund, aimed at working with farmers to promote healthy soils. news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/0…

Congratulations to CALS alumna Rory Guilday ’25 on winning gold!

‘Unprecedented’ emissions maps will hone mitigation 🗺️ To lower agricultural emissions, policymakers and communities first need to pinpoint the sources. Not just by country but crop by crop, field by field. In other words, they need maps. Detailed maps. In a study published Feb. 13 in Nature Climate Change, researchers have synthesized data from multiple ground sources and models to map global cropland emissions at high resolution – down to about 10 kilometers – while breaking down emissions by crop and source and identifying regions for more precise mitigation. “This is an absolute global synthesis of all the information you need, by country, by production system, for calculating greenhouse gas emissions – it’s been a significant undertaking,” said senior author Mario Herrero, the Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences and professor of global development in @CornellCALS. “This enormous update will now be used by all sorts of groups for targeting and understanding much better the emissions sources and developing precision mitigation strategies to address them.” The study was funded by @AtkinsonCenter and the Land & Carbon Lab, a collaboration led by World Resources Institute and Bezos Earth Fund.

Recognized: Five @Cornell faculty members are among 126 early-career researchers across North America who have won 2026 Sloan Research Fellowships from the @SloanFoundation. @CornellCALS @Cornell_Bowers @CornellCAS news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/0…

If humankind is to explore deep space, one small passenger should not be left behind: microbes. In fact, it would be impossible to leave them behind, since they live on and in our bodies, surfaces and food. Learning how they react to space conditions is critical, but they could also be invaluable fellows in our endeavor to explore space. Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi can harvest crucial minerals from rocks and could provide a sustainable alternative to transporting much-needed resources from Earth. Researchers from @CornellCALS and the University of Edinburgh collaborated to study how those microbes extract platinum group elements from a meteorite in microgravity, with an experiment conducted aboard the International Space Station. They found that “biomining” fungi are particularly adept at extracting the valuable metal palladium, while removing the fungus resulted in a negative effect on nonbiological leaching in microgravity. Read more at news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/0….

Maria C. Taylor, Assistant Professor (@CornellCALS) and 2025-26 CCSS Faculty Fellow, focuses on the history and theory of landscape, architecture, and urban planning, particularly in the Soviet Union. Check out her recent work: euraknot.org/green-cities-i… @CornellRsrch

We’re pleased to announce the awardees of the 2026 Cornell Atkinson + @nature_org collaborative research awards. Together @Cornell & TNC researchers will advance solutions for biodiversity, resilient coasts, flood risk management + climate-smart ag. ➡️news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/0…