Kusum Naithani Data-verified

Affiliation confirmed via AI analysis of OpenAlex, ORCID, and web sources.

Federal Grant PI

Associate Professor

University of Arkansas

Last publication 2025 Last refreshed 2026-05-22

faculty

13 h-index 73 pubs 970 cited

Research Areas

Links

ORCID Lab Website

OverviewAI-generated summary

Kusum Naithani's research investigates ecological systems, with a focus on microbial communities, biodiversity, and the impacts of disturbances such as fire and grazing. Her work examines the recovery of soil microbial diversity and functions following disturbances in forest ecosystems. Naithani also studies the influence of land management practices, like sheep grazing, on insect populations, including wild bees, and their foraging behaviors. Her research utilizes large-scale environmental data initiatives, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), to advance open environmental science and foster data literacy within the scientific community.

Naithani has received federal funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for two Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites. These grants, totaling $878,466, focus on the assessment and sustainable management of ecosystem services at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems. She serves as Principal Investigator (PI) on one of these awards and Co-PI on the other. Her scholarly output includes 72 publications, with an h-index of 13 and 942 citations. She actively collaborates with researchers at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, including Megan Reavis, Neelendra K. Joshi, Ayanna St. Rose, and Andy Pereira.

Metrics

h-index: 13
Publications: 73
Citations: 970

Selected Publications

Modeling rice leaf area index and canopy height in the US Mid‐South region (2025)

DOI OpenAlex
Unraveling the Influence of Structural Complexity, Environmental, and Geographic Factors on Multi‐Trophic Biodiversity in Forested Landscapes (2025)

1 citation DOI OpenAlex
Combined Landscape Complexity is A Better Indicator of Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Forested Ecosystems than Physical or Biological Complexity Alone (2024)

DOI OpenAlex
Intertegular Distance of Wild Bees and its Use in Estimating Proboscis Lengths and Foraging Ranges to Better Understand Bee Conservation Ecology (2024)

2 citations DOI OpenAlex
Sheep grazing influences the abundance, diversity, and community composition of wild bees and other insects in livestock pastures (2024)

5 citations DOI OpenAlex
A Problem with Distance Variables and Alternatives for Their Use (2024)

DOI OpenAlex
Effects of measurement methods and growing conditions on phenotypic expression of photosynthesis in seven diverse rice genotypes (2023)

1 citation DOI OpenAlex
People, infrastructure, and data: A pathway to an inclusive and diverse ecological network of networks (2022)

9 citations DOI OpenAlex
Recovery of soil microbial diversity and functions along a tropical montane forest disturbance gradient (2022)

7 citations DOI OpenAlex
Building communities of teaching practice and data‐driven open education resources with <scp>NEON</scp> faculty mentoring networks (2022)

7 citations DOI OpenAlex
Evaluating Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Mitigation Goals of the Global Food and Beverage Sector (2022)

18 citations DOI OpenAlex
Harnessing the NEON data revolution to advance open environmental science with a diverse and data‐capable community (2021)

32 citations DOI OpenAlex
From DNA sequences to microbial ecology: Wrangling NEON soil microbe data with the <i>neonMicrobe</i> R package (2021)

8 citations DOI OpenAlex
Evaluating the Landscape of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Mitigation Goals of the Global Food and Beverage Sector (2021)

1 citation DOI OpenAlex