NE CASC Scientists Work with Art Students to Visualize Climate Adaptation

In fall 2025, students, postdocs, and faculty at the Northeastern Climate Adaptation Science Center (NE CASC) participated in a pilot project in collaboration with students from Belmont University’s undergraduate art program. The goal of the collaboration was to use visual art to communicate stories about climate adaptation science, conservation, and community resilience. In total, teams of scientists and artists produced over a dozen digital art pieces.

The project began with NE CASC scientists sharing information about their research. Belmont students used these conversations to inspire artistic renditions of climate adaptation science projects. Research subjects spanned diverse ecosystems, from salt marshes to high alpine meadows, and questions, from plant-pollinator interactions to coastal sediment flows. One collaboration involved Belmont University art student Sam Davenport and NE CASC Principal Investigator Tony D’Amato to illustrate threats facing northeastern forests. “I wanted anyone looking at [the art] to be paralyzed and awestruck by the magnitude of ecological complexity,” said Sam when describing his piece inspired by D’Amato’s research. 

“Seeing the creativity of these amazing student artists was a treasure,” said NE CASC university co-director Bethany Bradley, “and the experience really brought us all together around a shared appreciation for these visual art pieces.” The collaboration also offered a lesson in communication and connection. Sarah Love, a NE CASC postdoctoral fellow reflected on the experience: “We shared knowledge about the natural world, and we shared knowledge about communicating with the heart. Through art, we highlighted the positive work happening across the region, and reminded ourselves that meaningful, hopeful work for the natural world continues even in times of uncertainty.”

Together, this collaboration demonstrated how science and art, when woven through shared purpose, can deepen understanding, inspire connection, and help cultivate resilience for communities and ecosystems in a changing world.

Scientist: Phoenix Susak

Collaboration description

Legacy Colonial Infrastructure from eras of agricultural practices on salt marsh environments in New England complicates marshes ability to maintain pace with sea level rise. Sedimentary reconstructions from Cousins River salt marsh between Freeport and Yarmouth, Maine highlight the impacts of remnant agricultural engineering leading to marsh platform degradation and megapool formation. This art collaboration highlights the methodologies utilized to investigate trends in sediment supply in the Cousins River salt marsh.

Surficial methods such as field surveys and sediment trapping allow for the comparison of modern sedimentation rates to those of the past. Cesium and Lead measurements constrain time periods from 1963, the peak in atmospheric nuclear testing, and 1850, the industrial revolution. Pollen grains detail the introduction of European invasive plants such as Plantago Lanceolata and Rumex Acetosella helping to detail marsh conditions from 1800 when these species were first brought across the Atlantic on ships. Agricultural eras are highlighted by the presence of Coprophilous spores which grow on cattle dung informing us of the beginning of Colonial marsh farming in 1760. Radiocarbon dating of plant macrofossils describe the evolution of the marsh from its original mudflat form dating all the way back to 304 BC. These dates allow us to describe declining sediment supply to the marsh and emphasize the need for restoration and conservation in order to keep pace with rising sea levels.

This project recognizes the Abenaki Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy whose homeland the towns of Freeport and Yarmouth now reside upon. With gratitude we acknowledge the people of the Wabanakik, the Dawnland, who have carefully stewarded these lands and waters for millennia.

Artist: Julia Bass
Julia Bass is an illustrator based in Nashville, Tennessee and a student at Belmont University. She enjoys making art inspired by nature, nostalgia, and her local community, bridging the gaps between the warm and fuzzy and the mildly unusual.

Links / contact
Instagram: @julia.bass.24
LinkedIn: @julia-bass-arts24
julia.bass@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientist: Ash Oh

Collaboration description 

Sea level rise and warming temperatures are changing the status quo on tidal flats in the Gulf of Maine. These expansive intertidal environments support a variety of organisms, including shellfish, migrating birds, and spawning fish, and they have provided a valuable food supply to people in the region for hundreds of years. However, soft shell clam landings have plummeted over the last 20 years, and there is no consensus for why. Invasive species like the green crab predate clams, access time to the intertidal area is impacted by rising sea levels, and sediment characteristics like density and organic content have changed. We collaborate with shellfish harvesters to map and understand these changes, focusing especially on changes to the sediment that composes tidal flats.

Conner Hall’s artwork depicts seven unique sites involved in our study. These sites span a range of grain sizes, elevations, surface areas, and sediment densities—exemplifying the great diversity of tidal flats in the Gulf of Maine. They are connected by the lived experiences of shellfish harvesters, who perform the hard labor of hand raking through sediment to gather delicate soft-shelled clams for Maine’s fishery. In addition, Connor’s work illustrates several threats to harvesting on tidal flats such as the invasive Green Crab and progressively rising sea levels. Together these pieces depict the beauty, diversity, and vulnerability of a critical environment on the New England coast.

Scientist: Bethany Bradley

Collaboration description

In an initial sketch for his work with Ash Oh, artist Conner Hall imagined a super-sized invasive green crab terrorizing the coastline. While his work with Ash went in a more realistic direction for their collaboration, I couldn’t get the image of ‘crabzilla’ out of my head. Although not quite at the level presented in Conner’s work, invasive green crabs can destabilize coastal salt marsh ecosystems through burrowing and herbivory - turning marsh into mud and increasing risk of erosion during storms. Crabzilla is emblematic of the harm caused by invasive species.

Artist: Conner Hall 
Conner Hall is a digital artist based in Memphis, TN, whose primary goal is to create art that connects with people. The art often plays in the space between sophistication and playfulness, creating visuals that feel both fun and skillfully rendered. Conner continues to develop his creative voice through projects that balance humor, depth, and a vibrant sense of imagination.

Links / contact
https://www.instagram.com/conner_hallway_art/
conner.hall@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientist: Aly Putnam

Collaboration description 

Marine intertidal habitats are vulnerable to climate change because organisms experience warming in both air and water as the tides rise and fall. At the same time, New England’s rocky shores are facing increasing pressure from invasive species that interact differently with these changing conditions. This research focuses on two common periwinkle snails that illustrate these dynamics: the native Littorina obtusata and invasive L. littorea. These snails are important grazers that shape seaweed communities and also serve as key food sources for many coastal species. Invasive L. littorea tolerates heat much better than the native species and often grows and grazes more under elevated temperatures including short term aerial heatwaves. It also consumes a wide range of seaweeds, especially invasive species that are thriving in the warming waters. In contrast, the native snail L. obtusata is far more susceptible to temperature stress and will graze and grow less under hotter conditions. It does not like invasive seaweeds, preferring native bladderwrack. Together, these differences show how climate change and species invasions have the potential to reshape intertidal habitats. Altering food webs and potentially giving heat tolerant invasive species an advantage in a warming world.

Sophie’s work illustrates the intertidal, highlighting the invasive L. littorea and native L. obtusata and how they are interacting with their environment; experiencing heat on the shore, consuming seaweeds in the sea, and serving as prey for a variety of other important marine species. This piece aims to educate viewers on the interactions of climate change and invasive species and to underscore the importance of often-overlooked marine species and the essential roles they play in coastal ecosystems.

Artist: Sophie McKenzie
Sophie McKenzie is a senior illustration student at the Belmont Watkins College of Art in Nashville, Tennessee. Sophie grew up in Dunstable, Massachusetts spending a lot of time on the beach and marshes of Cape Cod. New England conservation is near and dear to her heart and Sophie loved working on this project. Sophie loves making people smile and drawings that are silly, cute and fun.

Links / contact
sophie.mckenzie@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientist: Jon Woodruff

Collaboration description 
I collaborated with Joanna Wu to illustrate the story of sediment. As sedimentologists, we study how sediment moves from point A to point B and, in doing so, learn how landscapes are eroded, modified, and formed. This process is sometimes called “source to sink.” In the Northeast, it often involves tracking the movement of sediments that were created and deposited during past glaciations (sediments that are now actively being mobilized in upland regions and transported to the coast), where they become the fundamental building blocks of estuaries, beaches, tidal marshes, and mudflats. The research itself can sound a bit dry (I can confirm that saying “I’m a sedimentologist” is a real conversation-ender at most gatherings). But Joanna did a wonderful job capturing the story behind the science and presenting it in the engaging way I see it myself. Thank you, Joanna!

Artist: Joanna Wu
Joanna Wu is a Nashville based illustrator with a love for gaming. Her artwork typically is inspired by game art, splash art, and concept art. Even so, she loves to depict serene and calm scenes in her works. She loves color and challenging composition.

Links / contact
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/artistshovel?igsh=MXBtdjJocnFuZ2hhdg== (@ArtistShovel)
ArtStation - https://detectiveshovel.artstation.com/ (@DetectiveShovel)
joanna.wu@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientists: Laura Figueroa and Isabella Ragonese

Collaboration description 
Insect pollinators are essential for biodiversity and agricultural production, but many of their populations are in decline. Many pollinator conservation efforts are based on planting ‘pollinator friendly’ flowering plants, but these efforts often do not account for ongoing climate change. We collaborated with artist Nina Chounlamountry to depict an experiment testing a climate-smart seed sourcing strategy for native pollinator plants. Specifically, we explore whether plants of the same species from southern regions can better cope with heatwaves and what the impacts may be for pollinators. The background color gradient is based on the prediction that southern plants may be locally adapted to warmer conditions and thus better able to provide nectar and pollen resources after a heatwave. Three of our focal plant species are illustrated (wild bergamot, butterfly milkweed, and mountain mint) as are a number of insect visitors including monarch butterflies and bumble bees. The plants in the bottom of the page (coming from the south) take up more of the page because we are finding that they bloom for longer than those from the north. We are grateful for the opportunity to showcase this ongoing conservation focused research through art!

Artist: Nina Chounlamountry
Nina Chounlamountry is a Nashville-based illustrator and student at Belmont University's Watkins College of Art. In their work, they focus on reimagining nature through fantastical, sometimes comical settings. By illustrating these 'odd' moments, they encourage others to savor the ordinary. They believe there is joy to be found in any idea, any place, at any time.

Links / contact
https://ninachounlamountry.myportfolio.com/work
nina.chounlamountry@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientists: Matt Fertakos and Thomas Nuhfer

Collaboration description 
We collaborated with artist Marina Ibrahim in the hopes of creating an art piece that could help us communicate a somewhat abstract concept: the necessary movement of native plant species northward in response to climate change. As our climate continues to change, it will alter which plants can survive across the landscape. To address this, our research has resulted in the creation of state lists of commercially available “climate-smart” native and near-native plant species for use by home gardeners. By planting climate-smart native species, gardeners will not only be ensuring the long term health of their gardens, but also facilitating the necessary movement of plants which would otherwise not be able to keep up. These are just a few native plants which gardeners can help to persist, move, and thrive, representing native flora from Kentucky to Maine. We hope the whimsical illustration of plants in a parade marching north is a fun visual as you approach this topic for the first time!

Artist: Marina Ibrahim

Marina Ibrahim (Watkins Alumna, 2024) is an artist and illustrator based in Nashville, Tennessee. Her main avenues of work lie in children's publishing, education, and surface design. She loves to create all things colorful and mystical in a wide range of mediums and styles. Marina also specializes in fine art entertainment, having done many live watercolor portraits, oil paintings, and demonstrations. She is looking forward to working on bigger and longer-term projects in the future as well as actualizing self-directed work.

Links / contact
Preferred contact: mibrahim.illustration@gmail.com
Website: https://www.marinaibrahimillustration.com/
Instagram: @msi.illustration

 Scientist: Jenica Allen

Collaboration description 
In an era of environmental change, natural resource management helps to ensure clean water, clean air, recreation spaces, and so much more. Invasive species, which are introduced pests that harm our natural ecosystems, crops, and working forests are one of the challenges that ecosystems face, in addition to climate change. To address these combined challenges, scientists and natural resource managers in the Northeast work together to identify and fill the most pressing information needs for resource management as part of the Northeast Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change Management Network (NE RISCC). We collaborated with artist Macie Horne to illustrate the human element of managing natural resources in the face of these two major environmental changes.

Artist: Macie Horne
Macie Horne (she/her) is a Nashville-based Illustrator/Graphic designer and a senior Illustration major at Belmont University's Watkins College of Art & Design. Originally from Northern California, Macie draws inspiration from the beauty of nature and the world around her and loves incorporating her passions outside of art into her work.

Links / contact
Instagram: @macie.horne.art
macie.horne@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientist: Heather Siart

Collaboration description 
I collaborated with artist Anna Claire Jackson to create an original piece of artwork featuring the White Mountain fritillary (Boloria chariclea montinus) and the White Mountain Arctic (Oeneis melissa semidea), two alpine butterflies found only in the Presidential Range of the White Mountain National Forest. Listed as state endangered and threatened, respectively, these species are entirely dependent on the fragile alpine zone, spending their full life cycle in this harsh, isolated environment. As a result, they are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and increasing recreational pressure.
Jackson’s artwork illustrates the subtle, often hidden ways these butterflies interact with their environment and highlights how easily they can blend into the alpine landscape. The piece serves as a reminder to visitors that these small, sensitive creatures share the trails with them and encourages people to move carefully through this unique ecosystem by staying on trail and following Leave No Trace practices.

Artist: Anna Claire Jackson
Anna Claire Jackson is a student illustration major at Belmont University from Southaven, MS. She loves mixing imagination with life as she creates stories through fantasy. She was delighted by the opportunity and enjoyed working with her scientist to create awareness for her subject.

Links / contact
https://www.instagram.com/aceofspades1306?igsh=MWdnNnlrNzR3aGs0&utm_source=qr
anna.jackson1@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientist: Sarah Love

Collaboration description 
How do ecologists decide how to take care of the natural world in the face of climate change? Ideally, in collaboration with a diverse team of people with the best available data, insight, and motives. Ongoing work at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge showcases the power of partnerships: Our decisions are more robust, effective, and meaningful when we work together to make them. This artwork shows the natural landscape of Back Bay: a beautiful coast with nesting sea turtles and shorebirds, a dense maritime forest with unique plant species, and the refuge-managed freshwater habitat that increases foraging opportunities for migrating birds. Though sea level rise is changing the landscape and threatening the managed habitat, our team is working diligently to make wise decisions for the future of this ecologically critical refuge. The fact that we come from different organizations, have different backgrounds, and view the world differently means that we increase the likelihood that together, we’re making the best decision for our natural world.

Artist: Vail Ensor

Vail Ensor is an aspiring illustrator from Franklin, Tennessee. Vail loves to use vibrant colors and textures to bring her ideas to life! She greatly appreciated the opportunity to work with Sarah Love!

Links / contact
Https://www.instagram.com/vail.blue/
vail.ensor@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientist: Toni Lyn Morelli

Collaboration description 
Climate change is increasing temperatures around the world, and that is wreaking havoc on our seasons and ecosystems. In the Northern Hemisphere, and in the northeastern U.S. in particular, this global warming is resulting in warmer winters, more drought, and stressed plants and animals. Trees accustomed to boreal conditions are moose are stressed by high temperatures and winter tick, which benefit from less snow. Canada lynx and snowshoe hare, evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to specialize on places with cold, snowy winters, are losing ground (and their lives, in the case of hares) to generalist bobcats.

Artist: Audrey Parsons 
Audrey Parsons is a Nashville based illustrator and a student at Belmont University who thrives on bringing various stories to life through vibrant, whimsical illustrations.

Links / contact
Tumbler: @BlueOddity28
BlueSky: @BlueOddity28
audrey.parsons@bruins.belmont.edu

Scientist: Tony D’Amato

Collaboration description

Our goal was to reflect the complexity of threats facing northeastern forests and the diversity of partners working to support the many values forests provide into the future. A key element of this collaboration was portraying the wide range of species and lifeforms found in northeastern forests and the intersections with our research. This included capturing NECASC fellows and partners measuring breeding bird and vegetation community responses to co-produced adaptation strategies designed to sustain them in the face of a multitude of threats and challenges.  The resulting art piece by Samuel Davenport won first place in the Curb Art Center's Resilience and Adaptation exhibition at Vanderbilt University!

Artist: Samuel Davenport 
Samuel Davenport (Watkins College of Art 2025 alumnus)
The Illustrious Sanguine is an anti-genre, multimedia cyberweird illustrator. His work explores processes of automation, assimilation, and exploitation within information systems, particularly his long-form comic project ELDERNET. His comics and drawings are held in public and private collections and have been featured at COOP Gallery, Random Sample, and Galerie Tangerine in Nashville.

He has received multiple awards from both academic and professional institutions for his work. His clients have included the Nashville Public Library, the Hohenwald Elephant Sanctuary, and New Media Nashville.

Links / contact
illustrioussanguine@gmail.com
https://illustriousos.neocities.org
https://eldernetcomic.com
@7R4P320H3DR0N (Substack)