Before there were the gently rolling hills of farmland and forest we see today, southwest Michigan’s landscape included large areas of prairie habitat. Dominated by wildflowers, grasses, and sedges, these habitats were maintained by periodic fires and included oak barrens, dry sand prairies, and wetland prairies. Today, only a few remnants of Michigan’s historical prairies remain on the landscape. Prairie strips, a conservation practice in row crops that protects soil and water while providing habitat for wildlife, are one way to restore these habitats to the
Organic field day to be hosted at KBS
Please join Herbruck's on Thursday, July 8, 2021 from 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. for an Organic Field Day, hosted at the Kellogg Biological Station, 9702 N 40th St., Hickory Corners, Michigan. With over 500 certified organic farms in Michigan - and more in transition - organic production is an important aspect of Michigan agriculture. Organic practices can aid in creating resilient farming systems by successfully implementing cover crops, building soil health, planting green, and more. Information about the latest organic research and technology, alongside conversations with organic
On-farm conservation practices to build resilience: Notes from a virtual field day
Monica Jean, Educator with Michigan State University Extension (MSUE), shares details from the recent Cropping System Resilience Virtual Field Day, held July 2020. For the original article, see the MSUE website. MSUE teamed up with The Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research (KBS LTER) program and farmers in the Central Southern region of Michigan to host a live Cropping System Resilience Virtual Field Day in July. The day included a farm tour and interactive questions from the audience. During the tour, topics discussed were relay cropping, interseeding covers, and
Welcoming our new Science Coordinator, Nameer Baker
We are excited to welcome Nameer Baker to the KBS LTER community. He joins us as the new Science Coordinator, and to get to know him better we sat him down (virtually) to answer a few questions! What’s your research background and interests? My background is in microbial ecology. My postdoc focused on microbes in the rhizosphere of switchgrass growing in marginal soil, and my PhD focused on litter decomposer communities in Mediterranean ecosystems. I was originally drawn to microbes because of their ubiquity - I wanted to study problems that were facing human society, and so many
A message from our Director about research during the Covid-19 pandemic
Like everyone, we at KBS LTER are navigating difficult terrain with restrictions due to Covid-19. We have delayed some of our biggest new projects until next year. We will be missing our vibrant REU program and many other undergraduate students who typically come to live for the summer at KBS. Our most important concern is to maintain health and safety. We are able to continue some research. In particular, MSUs Vice President has identified as high priority long-term research, for which a lapse in maintenance or missing data could jeopardize an entire experiment. KBS LTERs 30-year
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
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. 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 including non-traditional and adult education, kept this question on their minds as they participated in the day’s
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
On Data and Reverie: A Farmer and Writer-in-Residence at the KBS LTER
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 Schneider assembled the bouquets ahead of a workshop
Seeking a more resilient agriculture: the next chapter for the KBS LTER program
Imagine for a moment a Midwestern agricultural landscape in late August that has not seen rain in weeks. Some corn fields remain green, showing no sign of a moisture deficit while other fields have curled leaves, plants starting to yellow. Belowground, microbial communities between the fields are acting differently, too, some biding their time until a pulse of rain puts them in motion while others continue their work. Under the same climate and soils, why is one field more resilient to the stress of drought? What about that field helps it to remain productive? In the midst of global