Sunshine A. Van Bael

Sunshine Van Bael is a Full Professor and Chair of the EEB Department, where she has taught since 2012. During her time as a researcher, she has traveled widely throughout Central and South America, as well as in Asia and Australia. Currently her research is based in Ecuador and along the Gulf Coast of the US. Her laboratory’s community ecology research focuses on plant-microbial interactions and how they are influenced by the environment and human stressors. Her research has been funded by multiple awards from the National Science Foundation and she is currently Editor in Chief of Ecosphere, a journal from the Ecological Society of America.

Selected Publications

Sánchez‐Juliá, Mareli, Blaine D. Martin, Iker R. Yturralde, and Sunshine A. Van Bael. "Soil Properties and Plant Species Identity Independently Influence Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Composition Across Lowland Tropical Forests." Biotropica 58, no. 2 (2026): e70164..

MacDougal, Elizabeth H., Bek XL Markel, Emily C. Farrer, Shehbaz Ahmad, Julie NL Albert, and Sunshine A. Van Bael. "Wetland plant growth in recycled glass sand versus dredged river sand: evaluating a new resource for coastal restoration." Restoration Ecology (2025): e70020.

Aponte Rolon, Bolivar, A. Elizabeth Arnold, Mareli Sanchez Julia, and Sunshine A. Van Bael. "Evaluating endophyte‐rich leaves and leaf functional traits for protection of tropical trees against natural enemies." Functional Ecology 39, no. 2 (2025): 371-389.

Lumibao, Candice Y., Stephen Formel, Vijaikrishnah Elango, John H. Pardue, Michael Blum, and Sunshine A. Van Bael. "Persisting responses of salt marsh fungal communities to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill." Science of the Total Environment 642 (2018): 904-913.