Desiree Narango focuses her research on biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration in the face of global change. As a conservation biologist at VCE, Desiree’s ultimate goal is to help land managers and communities implement effective and efficient action to support biodiversity and people in a rapidly changing world.
Much of Desiree’s work takes place in forests of all types, from naturally regenerating and preserved forests to novel ecosystems significantly altered by people, such as urban street trees, residential yards, and agroforestry. She primarily studies plants, insects, and birds with a particular focus on multi-trophic interactions, habitat relationships of wildlife with specialized life histories, and mechanistic approaches to applied ecology. Her interdisciplinary work uses field, lab, and modeling-based approaches to answer questions that span across scales and taxa. She is strongly committed to public outreach and communication, collaborations between scientists and artists, and improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in ecology and conservation.
Before joining VCE in 2022, she was a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a postdoctoral fellow at City University of New York. She completed her Ph.D. in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in 2018, an MS in Natural Resources from the Ohio State University in 2012, and a BS in Environmental Biology from SUNY: ESF in 2006.
Projects
- Forest Ecology
- Mount Mansfield Songbird Research
- Bicknell’s Thrush Full Annual Lifecycle
- Insect-Bird Interactions in High-elevation Ecosystems
- Plant-animal Interactions
- Urban and Suburban Ecology
- Urban Macrosystems Project
- Biodiversity Monitoring of Restoration Outcomes
- Migratory Bird Stopover Ecology in Urban Green Spaces
Selected Publications
Deckel, S.C., Narango, D.L., DeLuca, W., King, D.I., Gerson, A. In Press. Stable Isotope Analysis and DNA Metabarcoding Reveals Elevational Shifts in Diet of a Montane Breeding Bird. Journal of Field Ornithology.
Narango, D.L., Tallamy, D., and Shropshire, K. 2025. Tree Composition Mitigates the Negative Effects of Urbanization on Specialist and Generalist Forest Moth Communities. Ecological Solutions and Evidence. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 6(2), p.e70038. DOI: doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70038
Narango, D.L. and Straley K. 2025. Nonnative congeneric trees are poor quality host plants for a larval Lepidopteran. Ecosphere, 16(5), p.e70274. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.70274
Blanc-Benigeri, A., Poirier, V., Narango, D.L., Frei, B., and Elliott, K. 2024. Dietary preferences of moulting Swainson’s Thrushes (Catharus ustulatus) and Tennessee Warblers (Leiothlypis peregrina) at a stopover site during fall migration. Scientific Reports, 14(1), p.9913.
Mejia G., Groffman, P. M., Avolio. M. L., Bratt, A., Engebretson, J.M., Grijseels, N., Hall, S. J., Hobbie S.E., Lerman, S.B., Litvak, W., Locke, D.H., Narango, D.L., et al. 2024.How do urban trees vary across the USA: It depends on where and how you look. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, p.e2777.
Mejia G., P.M. Groffman, M.L. Avolio, A.R. Bratt, J. Cavender-Bares, N.H. Grijseels, S.J. Hall, J. Heffernan, S.E. Hobbie, S.B. Lerman, J.L. Morse, D.L. Narango, et al. 2024. Woody plant-soil relationships in urban interstitial spaces have implications for future forests within and beyond urban areas. Ecosystems, s10021-023-00881-x
Lerman, S.B., Larson, K.L., Narango, D.L., Goddard, M.A. and Marra, P.P., 2023. Humanity for habitat: Residential yards as an opportunity for biodiversity conservation. BioScience, 73(9), pp.671-689. (link)
Tallamy, D.W., Narango, D. L., and Mitchell A. (2021) Do non-native plants contribute to insect population declines? Ecological Entomology, 46(4): 729-742.
Lerman, S.B., Narango, D.L. (**Co-lead authors), Avolio, M.L., Bratt, A.R., Engebretson, J.M., Groffman, P.M., Hall S.J., Heffernan, J.B., Hobbie, S.E., Larson, K.L., Locke, D.H., Neill, C., Nelson, K.C., Padullés Cubino, J., and Trammell, T.L.E. Residential yard management and landscape cover affect urban bird community diversity across the continental US. Ecological Applications, in press.
Narango, D.L., Tallamy, D.W., and Shropshire, K.J. (2020) Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species. Nature Communications, 11, 5751 (LINK)
Narango, D.L., Tallamy, D.W. and Marra P.P. (2018) Nonnative plants reduce population growth of an insectivorous bird. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(45):11549-11554.
