Helping students hear the stories that data tell
Data Nuggets, operated by the KBS LTER, started its third round of funding from the National Science Foundation to improve data literacy in K-16 students.
Tiny But Mighty: How Flies Shape Agroecosystems
These tiny creatures are everywhere we turn, yet rarely do we pause to acknowledge their key role in our lives. DeShea Dillard explores flies.
Partnerships make the Kellogg Biological Station go ’round
Partnerships form the center of long-term research at the KBS LTER, and while their goals are different, their work is deeply intertwined.
Across fourteen LTERs, soil carbon is a “gatekeeper” on the nitrogen cycle
An LTER cross site synthesis effort reveals that soil carbon availability determines nitrogen mineralization and nitrification rates across a wide diversity of terrestrial ecosystems.
Similar invasive insects coexist through slight differences in environmental responses
Novel analyses of a 31-year dataset on invading ladybeetles shows that small differences in habitat preference across years allow for two similar invading species to coexist while native species decline.
In “The Conversation”: Climate change is already disrupting US forests and coasts
Scientists have been consistently documenting environmental changes at research sites like this one in the Cascade Mountains for decades. US Forest Service Michael Paul Nelson, Oregon State University and Peter Mark Groffman, CUNY Graduate Center Record-breaking heat waves and drought have left West Coast rivers lethally hot for salmon, literally cooked millions of mussels and… Read more »
Kellogg LTER Researchers Play Key Role in New Biology Integration Institute
Many ecological functions depend on symbiosis, where two organisms come together to form emergent traits neither displays alone. Microbes like bacteria and viruses are often at the center of these interactions. A new $12.5M National Science Foundation (NSF) grant will fund an ambitious endeavor to synthesize biological data across several disciplines to study the role… Read more »
Understanding Farmer Attitudes Can Help Address Water Quality Issues
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is predicted to be a near record size in 2019. By the end of summer, the hypoxic region at the mouth of the Mississippi River is expected to occupy over 22,000 square kilometers—an area the size of Massachusetts. The culprit? Nitrogen-based fertilizers applied to crops across the Midwest that… Read more »
LTER Road Trip: Busy Bees at Kellogg Biological Station
In a grassy clearing between crop hectares at the Kellogg Biological Station LTER, Dr. Nick Haddad, Principle Investigator, stares into the dark recesses of a bee box, set a few feet off the ground. The research team places the bees here while they’re still in cocoons. When they hatch, the bees gather fluorescent yellow, powdered… Read more »
LTER Road Trip: Plight of the Lady Beetles
Dr. Doug Landis waded into a soybean field in Michigan’s Kellogg Biological Station LTER Site. Bending down in the September heat, he carefully turned over leaf after leaf. After a few seconds he stopped, “Here they are!” I crouched down to my heels, bringing my face close to the rough underside of the leaf. Dr…. Read more »
Top Stories
Love writing about science? Now accepting applications for our 2024 LTER Graduate Writing Fellows program!
A changing Arctic drives a new generation of research
Measuring Methane in 4D: Tree Fluxes at Harvard Forest
Shaped by fire: the Bonanza Creek LTER
Renewed funding for the LNO prioritizes synthesis, broadening participation, and mentorship
It begins with quality data: non-LTER student uses SBC LTER data to learn R, presents work at ESA
Science at the Top of the World, or, 48 Hours at Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems LTER
Announcing the LTER Photo Contest, 2024
Engagement Practice Briefs
Crossing boundaries: two new synthesis working groups funded at the LTER