Site News

Every Friday mid-May through mid-October, a staff member at Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) drives to a tall, narrow pipe on the Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) main experiment site, opens a small door at the base of the tower and extracts a bottle filled with liquid and a cornucopia of insects.

Researchers at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Long- term Ecological Research (LTER) site have hatched a plot to engage elementary through high school students in real-life science and to help graduate students learn how to better communicate science to the public.

The encroachment of grasslands by woody plants is occurring globally, with profound ecological consequences. In the Pacific Northwest, the invasion of mountain meadows by conifers is threatening biological diversity at both local and regional scales. Although small and often isolated, meadows contribute disproportionately to the diversity of this largely forested landscape. Recent encroachment—reflecting changes in climate or disturbance regime—has reduced the extent of meadows by more than 50 percent in parts of the Cascade and Coast Ranges, raising widespread concern and interest in management to restore and conserve these important habitats. 

Through more than three decades of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, the network and its 26 individual sites have paid attention to the management of data from ongoing research and monitoring programs.  As a result each site has excellent databases and large and eclectic catalogues of empirical data that can be used for comparative analysis. We believe that parallel to these information management efforts, there should be an effort to preserve, organize and curate the historical records of the LTER programs themselves—whether for archival purposes or for practical matters of LTER science and administration. The LTER program, embodied in the collective work of individual LTER sites, is a cultural resource worthy of preservation. It would be tragic to undervalue historical records that might lie buried in a file cabinet or desk drawer or the memories of individual researchers who painstakingly built this program.

The busy summer season at the Cedar Creek (CDR) Long Term Ecological Research site was punctuated by the second running of a master’s level ecology course designed specifically for teachers of grades 6-12. Ecology and Earth Systems Dynamics (EESD) attracted seven master’s level students from the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Design (CEHD). Working alongside Jeff Corney and Mary Spivey were professors from CEHD who provided the instruction techniques, making EESD a true cross-disciplinary collaboration. 

It wasn’t all bad news up here on Niwot Ridge following what some local newspapers have dubbed the “1000 year rain”: the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program and our Mountain Research Station (MRS) emerged relatively unscathed from the scary floods. Between Tuesday September 10 and Monday morning September 16, the areas around Boulder, CO, received an historic 17.16 inches of rain.  However rain amounts on Niwot, while well above normal, were not catastrophic and resulted in very little damage to roads, buildings, or research sites. Totals on the ridge ranged from 4.83 inches of rain at our D1 site located at 12,267 feet, 5.93 inches at the 11,500 foot Saddle station, and 7.48 inches at our C1 site located at 9,914 feet in elevation.

Continuous long-term studies are rare in ecosystem science.  On 1 June 1963 the first water sample  was collected at Hubbard Brook (HBR) and  the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study was officially born--an event commemorated in July 2013 with a 50^th anniversary symposium and celebration. 

Scientists have long predicted that plants would begin to use water more efficiently—that is lose less water during photosynthesis—as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose.

The Niwot Ridge (NWT) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site is an unusual laboratory high in the Rocky Mountains.  Year-round, scientists and field technicians are conducting numerous expe

Small feet encased in rubber boots splash through the water of Kings Creek on the Konza Prairie in northeast Kansas.  A group of 10-year olds are exploring the creek and one of them, Hailey, h