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The Kellogg Biological Station's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Project has available small grants for graduate research conducted on the LTER site at KBS. Students conducting graduate-level research are eligible to apply for up to $1500 for supplies, travel, on-site accommodations, and other research-related expenses (but not salary or stipends). Eligible projects should be related to some aspect of agricultural ecology, must be conducted on site or use material from on site, and must conform to standard site-use policies with respect to sampling activities and acknowledgment of NSF/LTER support in subsequent publications. Awards will be made on a competitive basis; priority will be given to those projects most closely aligned with overall LTER goals.
The principal goal of the KBS LTER Project is to gain a basic, process-level understanding of important ecological interactions in row-crop ecosystems. On-going studies encompass an integrated set of questions related to nutrient and water availability, plant and microbial community structure, and insect and pathogen population dynamics in cropping systems typical of the upper U.S. Midwest. Twenty-five MSU faculty from 7 different departments are currently involved in the project together with several faculty from other institutions.
The LTER Site is located at MSU's W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) about 60 miles southwest of East Lansing. The site includes a main site with eight replicated (n=6 blocks) experimental treatments of cropped and native successional communities, successional fields and forests, and extensive agricultural areas managed by the Dairy exclusively for production. The main site treatments include four annual cropping systems, two perennial cropping systems, and two successional treatments. The annual cropping systems represent corn-soybean-wheat rotations: two systems are conventionally farmed (one no-till and one plowed) and two systems are organic based (one low chemical input and one zero chemical input, both ridge-tilled). One of the perennial cropping systems is planted to alfalfa and the other to Populus trees. The successional communities include one treatment on-site established on a soil profile that was historically tilled until abandonment in 1989, and another community off-site on a nearby never-plowed soil profile. A number of smaller plots within the 1 ha treatment plots provide opportunities for experimental manipulations of all eight systems. An additional set of 3 old growth deciduous forest stands, 3 coniferous forest plantations, and 3 older successional fields are nearby on the same or similar soil series.
LTER research is supported by a core set of plant, soil, insect, and weather measurements taken on a regular basis since 1989. These data are managed as a resource available to all researchers working at the site.
Proposals for research support should be brief (less than 5 pages double spaced) and accompanied by a line-item one-year budget and curriculum vita. A cover letter requesting support should identify the chairperson of the student's dissertation committee and present research status.
Send proposals as a single pdf or Word document, and direct requests for further information to the KBS LTER Director. Brochures describing LTER research foci are available from the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences (286 PSSB), the College of Natural Science Office (Natural Science 126), and KBS. Proposals are considered as received.
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