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Lin presents at the IALE 40th Anniversary Meeting in Athens, Georgia
April 27, 2026
Lin Meng presented work, “Artificial Light at Night Extends Growing Seasons across Coupled Human–Natural Landscapes,” at the IALE 40th Anniversary Meeting in Athens, Georgia. The meeting marked four decades of research in landscape ecology and brought together an international community of scholars working across human and natural systems.
Lin named ESA Early Career Fellow
April 15, 2026
Lin Meng has been named an Early Career Fellow by the Ecological Society of America in 2026. This recognition reflects her contributions to ecology and her growing impact in the field. Early Career Fellows are selected within eight years of completing their doctoral training and are recognized for advancing ecological knowledge and its applications, as well as for their potential to continue making significant contributions across areas represented by ESA. The fellowship is held for five years. Lin is grateful for the support, mentorship, and collaboration of colleagues and collaborators that have shaped her work!
Rethinking urban heat in a warming world
March 16, 2026
Will cities keep getting hotter? Our new PNAS Nexus study led by Huidong Li suggests the answer is more nuanced than often assumed.
Analyzing 36 major cities, the study finds that urban heat is not increasing uniformly. In many city centers, expanding vegetation is helping to slow warming. At the same time, suburban growth is often replacing vegetated land, leading to faster warming at the urban fringe. These contrasting trends are reshaping the classic urban heat island pattern. Rather than a sharp temperature difference between urban cores and surrounding areas, the gradient is flattening, with heat becoming more widespread across the landscape. The findings point to a clear opportunity. How cities grow, and how they manage vegetation, can play a meaningful role in shaping future urban climate.
Evolution of urban heat island (UHI) patterns driven by urban expansion and changes in vegetation across four urban development pathways. Areas that become greener show reduced UHI, while areas losing vegetation experience increasing heat. Over time, the contrast between urban cores and surrounding areas becomes less pronounced, with heat spreading more broadly across the landscape. From Li et al. 2026.
New paper linking light pollution to longer allergy seasons
January 20, 2026
A new study led by Brandt Geist, published in PNAS Nexus, shows that artificial light at night can extend allergy seasons by several weeks and increase the number of days with high allergenic pollen exposure.
Focusing on the northeastern United States, the work finds that areas with higher levels of nighttime light experience longer growing seasons, which in turn prolongs pollen release and intensifies exposure. The study highlights an underrecognized pathway through which urban environments shape human health, linking light pollution to ecological processes and public health outcomes. It adds to a growing body of research showing how human-driven changes to the environment can alter seasonal dynamics in ways that directly affect daily life.
Media coverage:
Science News Explores. Light pollution could be supercharging your pollen allergies. [here]
ALAN session at the 2024 ESA Annual Meeting in Long Beach, CA
August 6, 2024
At the Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting 2024 in Long Beach, California, Lin Meng organized an oral session (OOS) "Ecological consequences of light pollution". The session brought together six researchers working on light pollution and ecosystem processes, creating space for focused discussion and exchange.
Within this session, Brandt Geist presented his work, “Towards a Darker Sky: The Efficacy of Mitigation Strategies for Artificial Light at Night and Its Impact on Plant Phenology.” The ESA conference provided a valuable opportunity for Brandt to share his findings with the scientific community, gain feedback from experts in the field, and engage in discussions on the latest advances in ecology and environmental science. A short visit to the beach after the session provided a welcome break!
Lin visited Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff
April 9, 2024
Lin Meng visited Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff to give a talk in the Ecoinformatics Seminar, hosted by the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems and the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss). The visit happened during the solar eclipse, which made the trip especially memorable and brought a lively atmosphere to campus!
She spent time with Andrew Richardson, a longtime collaborator, and met with faculty, postdocs, and graduate students at Ecoss. The conversations were wide-ranging, from ongoing projects to new ideas around ecosystem dynamics.
Outside of meetings, Lin briefly explored Walnut Canyon National Monument. The canyon landscape, set against snow-covered mountains, was striking and offered a quiet moment.
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