What does this cross-section of an eastern gamagrass root tell us about soil health and long-term plant stressors? Join us for tomorrow's (2/7) 12:15 Friday Ecology Seminar w/ Maggie Wagner, assoc scientist here & KU Ecology & Evolutionary Biology assoc prof. Info+Zoom+parking: biosurvey.ku.edu/spring-2025-se…

Join us for this week's (2/14) 12:15 Friday Ecology Seminar with Nico Franz, KU Natural History Museum director, for an interactive talk on Symbiota, an open-source software for managing and mobilizing biodiversity data. Info+Zoom+parking: biosurvey.ku.edu/spring-2025-se…

Join us for this week's (2/21) 12:15 Friday Ecology Seminar with Kelly Kindscher, a senior scientist here and prof in Env Studies @ KU 🌎: "Wild edible plants of the prairie—and names of culturally significant plants." Info+Zoom+parking: biosurvey.ku.edu/spring-2025-se…

Join us for this week's (2/28) 12:15 Friday Ecology Seminar with Haley Burrill, KU alum and postdoc at the University of Oregon: "Relative influences of fire, climate, and vegetation types on fungal distribution." Info+Zoom+parking: biosurvey.ku.edu/friday-ecology…

Join us tomorrow for this week's (3/7) 12:15 Friday Ecology Seminar with Joel Swift, NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at KU: "Roots to shoots: Exploring eastern gamagrass diversity across the Central U.S." Info+Zoom+parking: biosurvey.ku.edu/friday-ecology

Bonus ecology seminar this Wed., 3/26, 3 pm: Onofrio Mazzarisi, former postdoc here, is visiting from Trieste, Italy. He'll talk about how details of population self-regulation matter for the stability of large ecological communities. Info+Zoom+parking: tinyurl.com/mr8ss2p3

Gardeners and farmers buying mycorrhizae (a billion-dollar market) might not be getting what they think. The experts on these fungi? Here at our research center, where the world's largest collection is stored, studied and shared. tinyurl.com/mst64pnk

As wetlands disappear in Kansas, wet areas along reservoir shorelines may replace part of what's lost. Join us Friday, 4/18, for our weekly ecology seminar. Researcher Debbie Baker will discuss wetland surveys at Kansas reservoirs. Info: biosurvey.ku.edu/spring-2025-se…

Congratulations to the recipients of our 2025 Student Research Awards: Yufan Zhou, Alexandra Coveney, Mira Rausch and Mackenzie Grover. We're excited to to help support your research that can benefit the lands, waters and animal life in Kansas and beyond. biosurvey.ku.edu/news/article/K…

When populations of animals or plants fluctuate together across vast distances ("spatial synchrony"), they're responding to ecological factors. This can affect farming and more right here in Kansas. news.ku.edu/news/article/s…

What are we learning about the KU Field Station's tree species mix from aerial imagery collected there by NEON? Implications for larger scale analyses? Join researcher David Weiss this Friday, 5/2, for our final spring 2025 ecology seminar. Info: biosurvey.ku.edu/spring-2025-se…

A handful of our researchers met at noon today to add extra plants from the West Campus greenhouse to the West Campus Pocket Prairie, which is just a year old and typically weedy—but just wait a couple of years. Thanks, Peggy, Tom, Reb, Holly and Aoesta!

"A powerful tool that democratizes satellite data for a wide audience, from farmers to researchers": KU researchers under the KansasView program launch new web-based geospatial app. morningagclips.com/ku-researchers…

It's been used to monitor crops, assess damage from drought, detect changes in land use, and track vegetation recovery following a disaster. More—from KU News—on the powerful new Sentinel GreenReport Plus app. biosurvey.ku.edu/news/article/n…

A lot of rain lately, and the folks from the Kansas Division of Emergency Management tell us our Kansas Flood Mapping Dashboard has been a big help. Check out this interactive app developed by the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing (KARS) Program: kars.ku.edu/.../KU::kansas…

Warmer weather ~ algal blooms. Our Lake Assessment Lab folks were out last week at Marion Reservoir. Their buoy helps provide an early warning system to KDHE and drinking water treatment plants to help them know when blooms and metal issues will affect the lake.

Grad students (l-r) Marcos Gimenez Diaz, Lydia Regier and Lydia Westberg of the Baer Lab were out this week surveying plant communities at a long-term research site at Konza Prairie LTER. Photos by Ashley Bowman, who just defended her doctoral dissertation and graduated.

Slowly, the West Campus Pocket Prairie is becoming itself. Seeded in late winter 2024, it's showing a little color. Here, pitcher or blue sage, bee balm and silflower. The prairie is still extremely weedy and will be for several years—restoration takes time and patience.

In KU’s West District Greenhouse, grad student Rashmi Liyanage (left) and undergrad Grace Francis collect data for an NSF-funded study that aims to help us better understand how microbiomes influence plant performance in both ecological restoration and agricultural systems.

Happening at KU now: The 2025 International Monarch Science Symposium. We're proud to be the admin home for the host—Monarch Watch. Dozens of researchers have gathered to share info on how to protect this species and how our lives are affected by monarchs and other pollinators.