Morgan Clark is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Janzen Lab at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. She studies behavioral ecology, working to understand how individual animals exhibit consistent variation in behavior and how these behavior types may influence their interactions with one another and their environment. As a kid, I fell in love with art in an after-school program called “Bright Futures”. Each day after school, for a specific segment of the year, I would have the opportunity to learn about art across various media from local artists and instructors. I carried this with
Using community-engaged scholarship to address conservation barriers in rural Michigan croplands
Cynthia Fiser is a PhD candidate in the Landis Lab at Michigan State University, Department of Entomology and a 2024 KBS Broader Impacts Fellow. Her research looks at the ecological and social impacts of perennial prairie strips in row crop agriculture. Change starts with people. Grassroots efforts that encourage people to learn, adapt, and share with others can help facilitate both community and individual capacity building. In the academic community, we pride ourselves that we know what the problems are, and it is our research that will be the solution. However,
MSU KBS broader impacts: Mentoring the next generation of community-engaged scholars
Post by Cynthia Fiser, graduate student in Doug Landis’s lab in the Michigan State University Department of Entomology and 2024 Broader Impacts Fellow. Her research looks at the impact of perennial prairie strips on the dispersal of ground beetles in row crop agriculture. Broader impacts, the practical component or long-term goal of most research projects, are often delegated to the final section of a grant proposal, paper, or presentation. However, broader impacts are front and center to successful research at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station. The
Drought effect on pore structure in soils: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
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
Pools of phosphorus across the LTER: Reflections from an LTER Fellow
Ethan Weinrich is a graduate student in MSU's Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, advised by Sieg Snapp. The Challenge Soils contain the largest pool of phosphorus on Earth. Yet, farmers need to add phosphorus to their fields to help crops grow. This is called the Phosphorus Paradox: there is so much phosphorus in soils, yet plant growth is limited by this nutrient. The tricky part is that most of the phosphorus in soils is locked away in forms not available to plants. How can plants access the phosphorus they need to grow? Phosphorus minerals in soil can be broken
KBS LTER Graduate Student Fellowships for 2014
MSU grad students: multiple fellowship opportunities are now available! The KBS LTER has year-long and summer funding available. The KBS GK-12 program is accepting fellows for their sustainable biofuels education program, which helps grads gain skills in science communication and education. Application information available at: http://lter.kbs.msu.edu/get-involved/job-openings/
KBS LTER Graduate Fellowships for 2013
The KBS LTER Graduate Fellowship provides stipend support ($30,000) plus tuition and fees for one year beginning each May. Additional funds (up to $5,000) are available for travel and meeting expenses. The fellowship is open to prospective graduate students or current MSU PhD students who are interested in or currently conducting research in association with the KBS Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program (lter.kbs.msu.edu ). For more details click here >>.
KBS GK-12 Fellowship Announcement for 2013-2014
The KBS GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project is accepting applications for graduate student fellowships for 2013-14. This graduate training project is funded by grant from the NSF Division of Graduate Education. Fellowships are intended for students who have completed at least their first year of graduate coursework.