Humanity has profoundly altered the biosphere in many ways. Pervasive human activities have resulted in the perturbation of the main biogeochemical processes and the massive transformation of the land surface on Earth, leading to the massive loss of biological diversity. It has been suggested that new advances in a combination of acoustic sensor technology and wireless sensor networks will provide a great deal of the spatially dense, near-real time biological observations in ways that were previously inaccessible to ecologists and environmental scientists.

High yielding perennial grasses, legumes, and grass/cereal hybrids are currently being investigated as potential alternative crops which could produce high yields of food or forage while also maintaining high levels of ecosystem services (lowered erosion, increased carbon sequestration, improved soil quality, and higher levels of pollinators and natural enemies as compared to annual systems). However, it is still unknown to what extent it will be possible to select perennial grasses and perennial grass/cereal hybrids for increased yield without jeopardizing the perennial life cycle.

Species differences in germination play a crucial role in structuring annual plant communities. Germination depends upon numerous cues, including temperature and moisture, with global climate change models predicting increasing nighttime temperatures and more variable precipitation with larger, but less frequent rainstorms.

Microbial-mesofaunal interactions are known to play a significant role in the decomposition process and many researchers have examined interactions between microbes and common decomposer fauna (i.e. Acari and Collembola) under laboratory conditions. Biological succession in soil and litter has also been studied extensively in the field, however, few experiments have examined the concurrent succession of microbial and faunal communities. We propose that until this is done, our understanding of how microbial-faunal interactions influence decomposition will be incomplete.

Reservoirs are common on medium-sized rivers, and understanding their role in algal production is important. Suspended algal growth typically is limited in rivers because of hydrology and turbidity. Dams are particularly interesting because they increase water residence time and allow algae to be produced. The lower Kalamazoo River has two relatively large impoundments at Morrow Lake and Lake Allegan, which increase the production of algae.

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.

Ecosystems, both natural and agricultural, provide a host of benefits to people. Some of those benefits or “Ecosystem Services (ES)” can be sold through markets (e.g., food). Many others, like water-based recreation or aesthetic views, cannot be sold directly. Yet understanding their value is a key to designing policies that can enable these ecosystems to keep providing services. One indirect way to measure value of ecosystem services is via what people pay for the lands that provide them.

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.

Phosphorus (P) is often limiting in aquatic ecosystems. The quantity of available P is often determined by sediment binding and release processes. We obtained 32 sediment samples from shallow freshwater ecosystems in Southwest Michigan. Sediment cores were separated into consolidated and flocculent strata for analysis of percent organic matter, total sediment phosphorus (TP), and HCl-extractable iron (HCl~Fe). Sediment TP ranged from 110-3348 ugP/gdw, with an average of 1052 ugP/gdw.