The Ramirez Lab, NCSU

The neuromuscular system of Chironomus vitellinus (Diptera: Chironomidae) Chironomids are important laboratory model organisms used to assess toxicity in freshwater environments. Cell and tissue features are not commonly used as chironomid markers to detect toxicity, but…

A new study by Reyes-Maldonado et al maps the detailed neuromuscular architecture of the non-biting midge Chironomus vitellinus, to facilitate its use as a model organism in environmental studies and establish the Chironomus neuromuscular junction as an aquatic toxicity marker.

Sharing our new publications:

Reyes-Maldonado R, A. Ramírez, B. Marie. 2026. The neuromuscular system of Chironomus vitellinus (Diptera: Chironomidae). PLOS ONE 21(1):e0326394.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Open Access in @plosone.org

Starting another semester at #NCSU full of #ecology. This semester we will be teaching our regular class of Ecology, with 192 students, and a more specialized class on Tropical Ecology, with 12 students. It will be a fun semester for sure!

Starting the 2026 with lots of plans and goals!

Happy New Year to all!

Happy Holidays!

Hurricanes are major disturbances that alter dramatically stream ecosystems. Here we looked at the stability and resilience trajectories of two small tropical streams following major hurricane impacts.

royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

@pabloguticr.bsky.social
@royalsocietypublishing.org

We hope everyone han a great Thanksgiving day!

Alisotrichia (Hydroptilidae: Trichoptera) - a curious microcaddisfly that, as a larva, does not build a case until it is ready to pupate. Almost all Hydroptilidae make silken cases, but Alisotrichia has a free-living larva and inhabits fast flowing habitats.

This specimen is from Puerto Rico.

Heteragrion (Odonata: Heteragrionidae), one of the most beautiful damselfly larvae from Centra America!

This predators are common in small forested streams, where they leave among leaves and under rocks.

Using automatic sensors in streams- Sharing some pics of our monitoring stations in Costa Rica. We're using sensors to monitor streams over time to understand how environments fluctuate and modify biotic community structure or ecosystem function.

Congratulations to our lab alumni on their professional achievements:

- Pablo Gutiérrez began as an assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez

- Mariely Vega began her work as a Policy Fellow with the NC Sea Grant program

- Ana Meza shared her postdoctoral work at Macrolatinos

Big thanks to the Macrolatinos network and the organizers of the VII meeting in Colombia for this recognition!

We had a great time presenting our research at the VII Latin American Meeting of Freshwater Macroinvertebrates in Manizales, Colombia, last week. It was great to finally meet in person after several online meetings since the pandemic.

www.macrolatinos.net

A beautiful helicopter damselfly (Megaloprepus caerulatus) in the rainforest!

Tropical research: What I think I'm going to see vs. what I'll actually see …

Investigar en el trópico: Lo que pienso que voy a ver vs. lo que realmente estaré viendo…

Studying the effects of nutrients on organic matter decomposition in tropical streams. Our team is working at La Selva, Costa Rica, using cotton strips to evaluate the effects of natural phosphorus inputs on ecosystem function.

What’s our lab up to in Costa Rica this summer?

Yes, it is!

Time to start our summer field work in Costa Rica!

Gold-tipped Darner (Gynacantha tibiata: Aeshnidae) is an active flyer over swamps in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica.

#CostaRica #Wildlife #Odonata #Dragonflies #BugSky #nature #wildlife #animals #photography #Outdoors

A pretty dragonfly from the genus Aphylla (Gomphidae / Forceptails), from the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. This group likes swamps and ponds, the picture was taken in a seasonal swamp.

#CostaRica #Wildlife #Odonata #Dragonflies #BugSky #nature #wildlife #animals #photography #Outdoors

Sharing information on aquatic insects during a fishing tournament in Puerto Rico. We had a wonderful time!

Remembering a great SFS meeting! We had a great time sharing our research at the 2025 meeting of the Society for Freshwater Science. It was a special meeting for us, as it took place in Puerto Rico for the first time.

#2025SFS #SFS2025

A special session at SFS-2025 in honor of our doctoral mentor, Dr. Cathy Pringle. She was also recognized as a Fellow of the Society for Freshwater Science.

We had a great time in Puerto Rico sharing memories and reconnecting with past members of the Pringle lab!

#2025SFS #sfs2025

Background: a lake surface. Foreground a title banner. The Society for Freshwater Science 2025 SFS Fellows. Body text: 2025 SFS Fellow Dr. Catherine Pringle University of Georgia. Picture of Dr. Pringle standing in front of a bird bath and flowers.

Congratulations to 2025 Society for Freshwater Science Fellow Dr. Catherine Pringle! freshwater-science.org/2025-sfs-fel...

SFS Fellows are honored for sustained excellence in contributions to freshwater science. We look forward to celebrating you at #2025SFS!💧🧪🌎

We found a little souvenir to remember our SFS meeting in Puerto Rico! 😅

@freshwaterscience.bsky.social

So happy to see Dr. Eugènia Martí, great scientist and colleague from Catalonia, be inducted as SFS Fellow. So well deserved - an inspiration for us all! #SFS2025

Here’s the list of presentations from our lab members and collaborators at the annual meeting of the Society for Freshwater Sciences in Puerto Rico. Very excited to share our work and meet old and new friends!

#2025SFS

Presenting our urban stream research at the Symposium of Urbanization and Stream Ecology in Puerto Rico #SUSE7