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KBS LTER and Malawi partnership addresses food security

The W.K Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research (KBS LTER) program of Michigan State University (MSU) is partnering with the University of Malawi (UNIMA) in southeast Africa on a new project. The goal is to address Malawi’s agricultural development and food security, two pressing domestic policy issues in a country relying heavily on agriculture. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperated to launch a new funding program; Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER). As a competitive grant

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New website on agriculture and ecology provides user-friendly access, resources

Hickory Corners, Mich. – Making agricultural ecology research information more accessible to its stakeholders and the interested public is the aim of the newly launched Michigan State University (MSU) Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research (KBS LTER) program website. “We redesigned the site in order to better share our research, education and outreach efforts with a growing mix of stakeholders in Michigan and across the country,” said Julie Doll, KBS LTER Outreach and Education Coordinator. “The new site is designed to serve agricultural professionals, K-16 educators, and

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New fact sheet – Climate Basics

The KBS LTER and Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) have published a new fact sheet, Climate Basics (Extension Bulletin E-3151), as part of a Climate Change and Agriculture fact sheet series. Julie Doll, KBS LTER Education and Outreach Coordinator, and Claire Layman, MSUE Public Policy Specialist, have worked together to engage producers, scientists and other decision-makers in discussions about the relationship between climate change and agriculture. As a result, a series of informational fact sheets have emerged as outreach components of projects funded by Project GREEEN,

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KBS LTER Graduate Student Fellowships for 2013

If you are an MSU graduate student interested in or currently conducting research in association with the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, two KBS fellowship opportunities will be of interest. Capstone Fellowships offer a year of graduate support for advanced PhD students and Summer Fellowships  offer summer support for both MSc and PhD students. For more details click here >>.

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Undergraduates conduct biofuel sustainability research at KBS

Cait Gallagher and Tamira Vojnar had the unique experience of gaining hands-on research experience as undergraduates at the KBS LTER this summer. Gallagher and Vojnar were part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program that brings undergraduate students from across the country to KBS every summer. The ten-week REU program was funded by the Department of Energy through the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC). Gallagher, a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Vojnar, a junior at Bowdoin College in Maine, were at KBS from May through early

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Guest blogger Bill Krasean on climate

Contributed by Bill Krasean If computer models of changing climate are accurate -- and they get better all the time -- Michigan's weather in less than a century may be similar to Oklahoma's today. With little question summers will be hotter and there will be far fewer -- if any -- bitter cold spells in winter. Although predictions about precipitation are less reliable, there may be longer periods of drought and short, intense periods of heavy rain and snow. That according to Dr. Perry Samson, professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan and noted

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KBS LTER researchers find way for farmers to participate in carbon markets

Via MSU News, news.msu.edu EAST LANSING, Mich. — Researchers at Michigan State University have helped develop a way for farmers to participate in carbon markets and get paid to reduce their use of nitrogen fertilizer, which represents one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production. The methodology, which was developed for the American Carbon Registry with support from the Electric Power Research Institute, will allow farmers to participate in carbon markets by creating greenhouse gas offsets by reducing the amount of nitrogen used to fertilize crops.

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Climate Change Resources Now Available in Spanish

This spring the KBS LTER has translated a series of climate change fact sheets into Spanish. Julie Doll, KBS LTER Education and Outreach Coordinator, and Claire Layman, MSU Extension Public Policy Specialist, have worked together for three years with the intent on finding ways to engage farmers, scientists, and decision makers in discussions about the relationship between climate change and agriculture. As a result, a series of informational fact sheets have emerged as outreach components of a research projects funded by Project GREEEN, Michigan’s plant agriculture initiative at MSU, and a

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KBS Provides Climate Change Communication Training for Working Professionals

Why is it that a vast majority of climate scientists agree that the climate is changing and that human activity plays a part in it, yet the American public continues to argue about it? How can the working professionals that LTER sites interact with talk to their stakeholders about climate change – and listen respectfully to their point of view – given the topic's polarizing nature? Julie Doll, KBS LTER Education and Outreach Coordinator partnered with Claire Layman, Michigan State University (MSU) Extension Public Policy Specialist, to create a two-day informational session and interactive

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