Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTER 2019 undergraduate summer researcher, Ashlyn Royce. She wrote about her KBS LTER Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) project working with the Marquart-Pyatt Lab. Ashlyn presenting at Mid-Sure, East Lansing, Michigan, July 24, 2019. The summer of 2019 I was selected to work with Dr. Sandy Marquart-Pyatt and her research team through the Michigan State University's Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, specifically working with the KBS Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Panel Farmer S
11.4.19
10.29.19
Join the Kellogg Biological Station community for a celebration of art and science
Richland, MI – What happens when one combines science and art? Scientists and other members of the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station community have spent the past several months exploring this question, and are gathering next month to showcase and celebrate the results of that exploration. The public is invited to the free event, called the Allurement Salon, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, in the Richland Community Hall, located at 8985 Gull Road, across from the Richland Harding’s Market. The salon will feature expressions of research and the natural world through original
10.8.19
A Peek at Life Under a Wheat Field: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
MSU graduate researcher, Allison Zahorec, is a PhD student in Dr. Doug Landis’s lab in the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University. Allison Zahorec holding a core of soil taken out of a wheat field at the LTER. Photo by Kurt Stepnitz. When one envisions a typical midwestern farm, ‘biodiversity’ is hardly the first thing that comes to mind. Compared to more natural landscapes, agricultural lands can seem like ecological dead zones. Yet even the most intensively managed corn monocultures are teeming with life belowground. A few teaspoons of soil can contain over a billion
9.25.19
Diving deep into soil: Reflections from an undergrad researcher
Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTER 2019 undergraduate summer researcher, Aista Sall, from University of South Florida. She wrote about her KBS LTER Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) project working in Dr. Steve Culman's lab at the Wooster Campus of The Ohio State University. KBS LTER REU Aista Sall (left) Hiking at Mohican State park located in Ashland, OH county. The midwest has always been a place I wanted to visit, due to its natural beauty and wide range of activities that it offers. So when the opportunity presented itself for me to do a dual Research Experience fo
9.17.19
Educators gather for Soil Health Field Day at KBS
The following post is by Ava Garrison, graduate student in Jeffrey Conner's lab and Science Education and Outreach Fellow at the Kellogg Biological Station. Sarah Evans and Corinn Rutkoski use a rainfall simulator to show how different soil treatments can affect water runoff and groundwater. Educators from across Michigan gathered at KBS for the 2019 LTER Soil Health Field Day, which took place on Wednesday, September 11. The day began with the driving question: how can we as educators share soil health science with our students? The attendees, who were educators from all grade levels
6.19.19
New book delves into the lives of the world’s rarest butterflies
Conservation biologist Nick Haddad didn't set out to study rare butterflies. His undergraduate studies didn't focus on butterflies at all. Yet the plight of the St. Francis' Satyr, a butterfly so scarce that it's found in artillery ranges at a single military base in North Carolina, intrigued him and set in motion a decades-long search to find the world's rarest butterflies and determine how best to aid in their recovery. In his new book, "The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature," Haddad chronicles the stories of six extremely rare
6.7.19
On Data and Reverie: A Farmer and Writer-in-Residence at the KBS LTER
Erin Schneider, farmer writer in residence at KBS. A blooming redbud tree flashed a profusion of pink outside the large windows in the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station’s Terrace Room. Inside, vases of freshly-picked plants spiffed up the small tables set around the room: milkweed, wood sorrel, garlic mustard, purple dead nettle, dame’s rocket, and motherwort. The bouquets were more than decoration; they were little collections of inspiration from a week spent exploring the lands, people and research at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. Self-described “people, plants and dirt-lover” Erin
4.23.19
Learning to step out of my comfort zone at KBS
Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) 2018 undergraduate summer researcher, Selassie Lijelu, is a Forensic Chemistry major at the University of Saint Francis-Fort Wayne. She wrote about herKBS Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) project working with the Haddad Lab. The summer of 2018, I was selected to participate in the Michigan State University Kellogg Biological Station (KBS)Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. When I accepted the offer, I was extremely nervous and had no idea what the next eleven weeks in Hickory Corners, Michigan would consist of. I was
4.18.19
Poco a poco : The little nopalito in a cornfield
Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) 2018 undergraduate summer researcher, Nicholas Vega Anguiano, is an undergraduate student at Humboldt State University. He wrote about his KBS Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) project working with Kate Glanville in the Robertson Lab. Anticipation and nervousness of my impending interview with a W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) graduate student, Kate Glanville, sent my body into a state of nerves. Throat tight, palms sweaty, and a million doubts running through my mind. Seven minutes until we were scheduled to meet, via a
4.14.19
My time as an REU: learning the research process
Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) 2018 undergraduate summer researcher, Audrey Hogenkamp, an Applied mathematics and biology dual major at Augustana College. She wrote about her KBS Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) project working with the Evans Lab. There are pages and pages that I could write about everything that I learned during my summer at W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS). Each individual that I encountered had such an incredible passion for their work that I felt like I was constantly inundated with new knowledge—from dinner table conversations with my friends