The KBS LTER site is in a diverse, rural-to-semirural landscape typical of the U.S. Great Lakes and upper Midwest regions. Research at KBS asks how diverse plants, animals, and microbes in agricultural landscapes can contribute to farm productivity, environmental performance, and profitability. We study annual and perennial crops including corn, soybean, and wheat rotations, forage crops such as alfalfa, and biofuel crops such as poplars, switchgrass, and native successional communities.

Landscapes provide ecosystem services to agricultural systems by supporting pollinators and predators of crop pests, services valued at $US 3 and $US 4.5 billion/yr respectively. Habitat management is the practice of providing nectar, pollen and shelter to beneficial insects in cropping systems, often in the form of flowering strips. However, the potential for flowering strips to increase biocontrol and pollination depends on the existing abundances of beneficial insects in the landscape, and highly simplified landscapes may support fewer beneficial insects than more diverse landscapes.

The major contribution of land-based activities to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is widely recognized by the scientific community. The question of how and whether to include the agriculture and forestry sectors in GHG emission reduction projects suitable for carbon emissions trading in ‘cap–and–trade’ programs however, remains controversial.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) produced in soils primarily through the microbial processes of nitrification and denitrification. It is the major GHG emitted by US agriculture, with annual emissions from cropland greater than 1 million metric tons. Soil management activities, including nitrogen (N) fertilizer application, are the largest contributor to N2O emissions in the US, accounting for around 80% of total N2O emissions from the agricultural sector.

Accelerating demand for liquid fuel, together with concerns about anthropogenic influence on the environment and fossil fuels availability, resulted in an increasing interest in using renewable energy sources, which could be grown agriculturally. However, increasing demand for food and acceleration of land-use change have raised concerns about use of food-based bio-fuel (i.e. corn ethanol) and turned research to the direction of cellulosic feedstocks.

Research at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTER site focuses on understanding the ecology of intensive field crop production and its environmental consequences. This topic cuts across biological disciplines ranging from agroecology to evolutionary biology, making our work both timely and important for stakeholders as diverse as farmers and K-12 students and teachers.