Goutham Thotakuri is a graduate student in the Kravchenko lab at Michigan State University. His research is focused on the study of carbon transfer between various cover crop species and soil carbon sequestration. Recent changes to our climate dynamics have brought on alarming drought conditions in many parts of the world. Since we cannot control the climate, we need to prepare our agricultural systems for adversity. One way to do this is through understanding the soil's hydro-physical and biochemical processes. We can identify critical factors influencing drought resilience by
Exploring the effects of multiple crises on the global food trade system: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
Nan Jia is a graduate student at Michigan State University's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and Environmental Science and Policy Program. Her PhD research seeks to uncover how the multiple crises affect global food trade system dynamics. She worked closely with Jack (Jianguo) Liu and members of the lab to reveal the impact of different crises on different stages of trade such as production, handling, transportation, and consumption by using production data, trade data, supply chain data, and consumption data. The interactions between
Trials and tribulations of a PhD student: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
Moriah Young is a graduate student at the Kellogg Biological Station and a member of Phoebe Zarnetske's Lab. Her PhD research seeks to understand the effects of climate change on soil biota, plant, and herbivore interactions. Using a combination of field and greenhouse studies, Moriah works to understand the ways in which the composition and structure of soil microbial communities respond to warming and drought, as well as describing the role that the soil microbial community has on plant traits, stress responses, and insect preferences in the presence of warming and drought. I went into
Area educators invited to Kellogg Biological Station K-12 Partnership’s Summer Institute
Hickory Corners, Mich. — Teachers and informal educators of K-12 students are invited to engage in science teaching professional development this summer at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. The 24th annual K-12 Partnership Summer Institute is set for 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 20, through Thursday, June 22. Registration is now open! This year’s theme is “Our Changing Planet, Classrooms to Ecosystems,” and will include scientific talks by Dr. David Karowe, Dr. Lauren Sullivan and Naim Edwards. Each morning’s science talk will be followed by a series of interactive and
DreamScene Placemaking: Artists-in-Residence 2022
Anna Lee Roeder and Erik Vasilauskas are the husband and wife team behind DreamScene Placemaking in Kalamazoo, and our 2022 KBS LTER Artists in Residence. They visited KBS twice during their Residency in 2022. For their first visit in the spring, they stayed with us for a week and toured KBS, visited our long-term experiments, and met with scientists, students, and staff. In the fall, they presented a brownbag seminar on the development of their artistic styles and how the residency fit into that trajectory. As a product of their residency, Anna and Erik engaged the KBS summer
Disentangling the complex effects of climate change on above and belowground communities: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
Graduate researcher, Moriah Young, is a Ph.D. student in Dr. Phoebe Zarnetske’s lab at Michigan State University. The lab uses open top chambers (OTCs) to study how biotic interactions and climate change directly and indirectly affect community structure and function at the KBS LTER. Climate change is a pressing threat to ecosystems around the world. From warmer temperatures to more unpredictable rainfall, climate change has shown to have a myriad of effects on ecosystems. Most research has focused on direct effects of climate change on species. For example, how does warming
Measuring and predicting soil carbon to offset climate change
KBS Long-Term Ecological Research scientists awarded a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency to study possible climate outcomes. When an unproductive swath of farmland is planted with row crops, it results in environmental damage with little to no yield. Instead, farmers can cultivate native plants in those spaces that improve soil health and support other native species. The USDA Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, offers them financial incentives to do just that. Measuring soil carbon for improved soil health Now, Michigan State
Studying climate change effects on plant traits: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
Graduate researcher, Kara Dobson, is a Ph.D. student in Dr. Phoebe Zarnetske’s Spatial and Community Ecology (SpaCE) Lab at Michigan State University. Her research focus is on the effects of climate warming and rainfall variability on plant traits. Climate change poses a looming threat to the functioning of ecosystems worldwide. Within ecosystems, my interest lies with plants and how they respond to stress caused by climate change. The way plants respond to stress varies widely and is dependent on things such as trait differences between plant species, differences in geographic location
Global warming impacts of intensively managed agricultural landscapes in SW Michigan: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
Graduate researcher, Pietro Sciusco, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Science-LEES Lab at Michigan State University. His research interest is to estimate ecological processes and their contribution to climate change in highly managed agricultural landscapes in southwestern Michigan. This is primarily through satellite data (i.e., multi-source imaging, optical and radar) and ground measurements. There is strong scientific evidence that human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and industrial processes, are the major driver of climate change since the
A new perspective – using bioenergy crops to alleviate global warming: Reflections from an LTER fellow
Jinho Lee is a PhD student in the Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences Department at Michigan State University. He works in the Kravchenko lab with interests in carbon dynamics of soil. Today we are facing one of the biggest environmental challenges that our species has never faced, and one that is caused by our own actions. Since the Industrial Revolution, the worldwide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased due to use of C-based fossil fuels. This has resulted in global warming. To alleviate global warming and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, several alternative