Assistant Research Professor, Dept. of Plant Biology
My research interests include utilizing molecular genetic tools including DNA genotyping using capillary electrophoresis, Sanger sequencing, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), transcriptome sequencing, and Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) to investigate plant genetic diversity and the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying plant phenotypes.
Professor, Dept. of Environmental Sciences
Daniel Giménez is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences. He is interested in the movement of water and transport of chemicals in soils at the profile, landscape and continental scales. He and his students conduct research on the physical properties of engineered and natural soils. A topic of interest is the quantification of the effect of land use types (e.g., golf course, forest, and agriculture) on hydraulic properties such as infiltration, saturated hydraulic conductivity and water retention. A variety of field and laboratory tools are used in these investigations, including Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Time Domain Reflectrometry (TDR), X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT), and instrumentation to automatically measure infiltration and soil water retention properties.
The arrangement of soil pores and solids, known as soil structure, determines the movement water, gases and energy through soil, and the habitat of roots and microorganisms. Daniel Giménez uses 3D images to characterize the geometry of pore systems and to relate the spatial arrangement of pores to soil function.
Increases in temperature and shifts in precipitation regimes are altering ecosystems and impacting ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration. Dr. Giménez’s latest research is focused on investigating the effects of elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and precipitation amount on the distribution of carbon in soils and its impact in soil porosity and hydraulic properties.
Professor, Dept. of Plant Biology
Stacy Bonos is a professor of turfgrass breeding in the Department of Plant Biology. Her main research objectives include developing improved, pest resistant and stress tolerant turfgrasses that can be utilized for resource conservation and environmental enhancement in the Northeast and throughout the world where cool-season turfgrasses are grown. The development of improved, genetically stress tolerant turfgrasses is important to the advancement of golf course, athletic field, and landscape management, and will greatly benefit the environment and the public at large. Her research program focuses on integrating classical genetics and genomics-based marker assisted breeding into a historically conventional field-based turfgrass breeding program. Her team has specific research projects on breeding for disease resistance, salt tolerance and low maintenance in numerous turfgrass species. She currently works with 11 different cool-season turfgrass species.
One of her main breeding projects over the past twenty years has been to develop bentgrasses for golf courses. Creeping bentgrass, the main species used on putting greens, fairways, and tees, spreads by stolons and colonizes voids quickly. However this species is susceptible to a number of fungal diseases including dollar spot, brown patch, anthracnose, copper spot and others. Breeding for improved tolerance to these disease has been a concentrated focus of the breeding program. In addition, traits such as wear tolerance, drought and salt tolerance and divot recovery have also been improved. Several new cultivars have been released in recent years with improved quality, disease tolerance and excellent performance in the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program trials. New cultivars released include Piranha, Coho, Chinook, Match Play, L93XD, 777, Barracuda, 007 and Luminary.
Associate Professor, Dept. of Plant Biology
Research in my lab is focused on the symbiotic association of Epichloë fungal endophytes with their grass hosts. Many commercially important grass species are naturally infected with fungi in the genus Epichloë. These fungi grow in between the plant cells in the above ground parts of the plant. The infected plants are generally asymptomatic and the presence of the fungal endophytes can only be detected microscopically. The presence of the fungal endophytes is generally beneficial to the plants since the fungi synthesize chemicals that are toxic to insects, thus protecting the grass hosts from insect damage. Fungal endophyte infection is preferred for turfgrass cultivars due to the insect resistance conferred by the fungi. In red fescues, endophyte infection also confers some disease resistance, a feature not observed in other turfgrasses. The reason for the endophyte-mediated disease resistance is not known and that is the focus of our research.
Assoc. Extension Specialist in Weed Science, Dept. of Plant Biology
My program is primarily focused on understanding best management practices to control weeds in turfgrass systems. We work to understand how turfgrass management practices are best integrated with herbicides to optimize weed control and ultimately reduce reliance on herbicides. To do this, we study weed ecology in turfgrass and herbicide efficacy, examining how weed competitiveness and herbicides are influenced by turfgrass management practices. We are particularly focused on warm-season weeds of cool-season turfgrass, including false-green kyllinga (Kyllinga gracillima) and goosegrass (Eleusine indica). Another primary focus of my program researching integrated strategies for annual bluegrass (Poa annua) control in cool-season turfgrass.
My research supports my Extension outreach efforts to educate turfgrass industry professionals. I give numerous seminars in New Jersey and across the country annually and develop other online educational materials. I also teach Introduction to Weed Science and Management and Introduction to Horticulture courses in the Plant Biology Undergraduate Program.
Rutgers University Department of Plant Biology and Center for Turfgrass Science welcome Dr. Ming-Yi Chou to the faculty as an Assistant Extension Specialist, specializing in turfgrass pathology. Dr. Chou’s extension program will focus on evaluating and developing efficient cool-season turfgrass disease management measures, including cultural practices, disease prediction models, synthetic fungicides, and biorational agents. His research will focus on plant-soil-microbe interactions in turfgrass, with an emphasis on how these interactions and coevolution collectively contribute to disease suppression.
Dr. Chou earned his bachelor’s degree in horticulture science from National Taiwan University, master’s degree in wine business from École Supérieure de Commerce de Dijon. He worked as a sommelier in L’Atelier De Joël Robuchon in Taipei before completing his Ph.D. in Horticultural Biology at Cornell University. He was the manager of vineyard technology in St. Supery vineyards and winery in Napa Velley, CA before returning to academia in post-doctoral positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Great Lakes Bioenergy Center in Michigan State University where he studied plant-soil-microbiome interaction with emphases on pathogen suppression microbes in turfgrass and beneficial microbes for bioenergy crops. Prior to joining Rutgers, Dr. Chou was a Research Scientist in turfgrass pathology program at University of Wisconsin-Madison, examining dollar spot suppressive microbiome and building snow molds predictive models. He was also involved in fungicide efficacy evaluation program for diseases important to upper Midwest such as dollar spot and snow molds.
Aside from work, he practices meditation and plays badminton. He is new to golf but is eager to improve.
Extension Specialist in Turfgrass Entomology, Dept. of Entomology
My research is centered on the biology and ecology of three major insect pests of turfgrass in New Jersey and the Northeast (white grubs, annual bluegrass weevil [ABW], black cutworm) and the development of biological control and integrated pest management technology for these pests. Preventive insecticide applications have become the standard for these pests but are expensive, of limited compatibility with IPM, and do not work well against some white grub species and often require several applications per year for ABW. ABW has also developed widespread broad insecticide resistance. There is a dire need for the development of alternative control agents and control strategies. Current research activities include the following:
We are studying aspects of its biology and ecology relevant for the development of better management tactics. We are studying the scope and mechanisms of insecticide resistance to help with the development of better resistance management recommendations. We are developing biological and biorational control options for controlling ABW adults and larvae. We are studying if the preference of ABW for annual bluegrass, a highly invasive weed grass on short-mown golf course turf, can be used to suppress annual bluegrass by using a threshold approach to ABW management in combination with plant growth regulators. We are examining whether Silicon fertilization can increase the tolerance of turfgrass to ABW feeding and whether the stronger beneficial effects thus far observed in creeping bentgrass can be used to help this preferred grass species better outcompete annual bluegrass.
We have shown that several nematode products can provide adequate field control and may be an option for areas where chemical insecticide use is restricted. We are further testing species combinations, sequential applications, and modifications of irrigation patterns to optimize nematode efficacy.
We are testing new strains/species of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) for curative and long-term management of white grubs. Mixtures of locally isolated EPNs have shown an improved persistence and long-term suppressive effects on ABW, white grubs, and several other turfgrass pests strain. We continue with these studies with new white grub adapted EPN strains/species.
We are collaborating with the chemical industry to test new and safer insecticides for the control of white grubs, ABW, and black cutworm.
Development of IPM for major insect pest with emphasis on ABW including (a) optimizing approaches to using ABW for the suppression of annual bluegrass and (b) studying Silicon fertilization to increase tolerance of turfgrass to ABW and help creeping bentgrass outcompete annual bluegrass.
Extension Specialist, Turfgrass Management, Dept. of Plant Biology
My research evaluates turfgrass cultivars (varieties) and best management practices for turfgrass systems used in the metropolitan region surrounding New Jersey. Frequent use (traffic stress) of turfed landscapes often damages the vegetative cover of lawns, sports fields, golf courses and other landscapes. Our research identifies turfgrasses that have better survival under traffic, which is a major criterion of Rutgers Cooperative Extension recommendations on turfgrass varieties.
Additionally, my research team is exploring ways to better manage (fertilization, mowing, irrigation, topdressing, aeration, etc.) turf and improve plant health and sustainability. For example, the work of numerous students has optimized and integrated fertilization, mowing, and topdressing practices that can reduce the severity of anthracnose (foliar/crown disease) and reduce associated fungicide applications for this disease by as much as 80%. Currently, we are studying disease tolerant turfgrass varieties along with the use of weather-based models and other timing tactics for applying fungicides to minimize the use of fungicides to control dollar spot (foliar disease). Early results indicate that a strategy that combines tactics may reduce fungicide use by 50% or more.
Another of my research foci is developing topdressing sand and cultivation programs for golf course putting greens that will minimize disruption of the playing surface, improve resource efficiency, and mitigate stress.
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Plant Biology
My research programs with turfgrass primarily focus on genetic engineering different turfgrass species for disease resistance and stress tolerance. We employ CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated 9 nuclease)-gene editing technology to engineer the grass host factors that are negative regulators in disease development and stresses such as drought and salinity. We also use plant tissue culture methods to induce and select disease resistant and stress tolerant turfgrass species.
Extension Specialist in Soil Fertility, Dept. of Plant Biology
My current research is focused on organic lawn care and sustainable food systems. I am harvesting and fermenting the organic lawn clippings in vacuum bags to make silage. My first objective is to demonstrate that organic lawn clippings can be made into grass silage and that this material can be stored for winter livestock feed. Thus, harvest of clippings from organic lawns can feed ruminants and produce food in the form of meat and milk for people. My second objective is to achieve a better nutrient management balance from organic fertilizers which otherwise tend to oversupply phosphorus. Nutrient management planning may use the typical analysis of grass plants (N 3%, P 0.4%, K 2% on a dry weight basis) to calculate mineral uptake and nutrient removal by clipping harvest.
