Kansas Bio Survey & Center for Ecological Research

10/22/2026

We never regret taking a minute for . Here, a black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) visits the flowers of prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya) in year nine of a tallgrass prairie restoration experiment in northeastern Kansas. The photo, taken by postdoctoral researcher Reb Bryant, was chosen for the October cover of the journal Ecological Applications.

🦋 Through the experiment, researchers found that both solarizing (rather than mowing) the non-native vegetation and inoculating the soil with native microbes before planting improved the restoration of tallgrass prairie plants.

10/19/2026

How does Kansas keep its safe? It takes real-time monitoring. Over the next two weeks, our Lake Assessment Team will deploy (big, yellow) high-tech buoys that provide real-time data on conditions in Kansas reservoirs. This equipment helps to predict harmful algal blooms and alerts municipalities to prepare to treat the water.

The buoys will be deployed at five reservoirs: Hillsdale, John Redmond, Kanopolis and Tuttle Creek. The team is out today at Perry.

Thanks to the Kansas Water Office for ongoing support of research on our reservoirs.

10/14/2026

How do you test a new idea—like intercropping with alfafa—for maintaining both and productivity in ag systems? Our researchers and their collaborators undertook a large-scale study of intercropping intermediate wheatgrass (IWG) with alfalfa.

They kept some key goals for ag system health at the center: 1) minimize soil disturbance; 2) reduce ag inputs; and 3) identify plants that thrive across a range of environmental conditions. The study results were published in late summer in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Agriculture.

🌱For this study:
* Researchers set up seven experimental sites in four states (Vermont to Salina, Kansas) in varied environmental conditions.
* They assessed intermediate wheatgrass (IWG) performance over two growing seasons in three croppings: 1) a monoculture of IWG; 2) a monoculture with nitrogen fertilizer; and 3) IWG intercropped with alfalfa.

🌱 Note: Two perennials were planted—once—in this experiment, IWG (Thinopyrum intermedium) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa).

🌱 Results:
* At the field scale, grain production of IWG was similar, at most sites, in the monoculture and the intercrop in both growing seasons.
* During the first season, there was reduced IWG biomass in the intercrop—but not in the second season.
* The addition of nitrogen fertilizer didn't substantially alter IWG productivity at most the sites.

So—the nitrogen fertilizer didn't change things much. The alfalfa didn't change productivity much, but it does what alfalfa does; it naturally provides nitrogen, holds the soil, suppresses weeds. That is, it performs ecosystem services.

Partners: The Land Institute, The Center for Regenerative Agriculture, Department of Biology - Saint Louis University, Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science & Action, Chicago Botanic Garden, UVM CALS, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Research continues.

The paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1816743/full

10/12/2026

We're hiring a Research Project Coordinator to help support communications, meetings, travel, project activities, and collaboration across an international network of researchers.

If you enjoy connecting people, keeping complex projects moving, and supporting scientific research, we'd love to hear from you.

Learn more and apply:

Research Project Coordinator Position Overview We are seeking a Research Project Coordinator who will play a central role in coordinating and supporting activities across MICROBENet^Net, a network of plant-microbial researchers funded through a four-year AccelNet-Implementation Phase 1 grant. Workin...

10/01/2026

Heard of precision fallowing? That's the concept behind a new research project that could help create a win-win for the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and food producers in south central Kansas.

🦆 The refuge is crucial habitat for birds along the Central Flyway migration route and was named a Wetland Site of International Importance in 1992. Its 22,000+ acres encompass two natural saline lakes linked by constructed canals and wetlands.

The refuge is bisected by Rattlesnake Creek, which brings its main flow of , but upstream irrigation can affect the water supply.

A $250K grant from The Nature Conservancy will support the use of Sentinel-2 satellite greenness (NDVI) images from a seven-year period (2018–2025) to examine subfield vegetation productivity tendencies (how much actually grows in certain spots) within each of the watershed’s 1,400 center pivot-irrigated parcels.

Locations within fields that consistently show low productivity (biomass) will be identified as candidates for reduced irrigation and removal from cropping (precision fallowing).

💡The big idea: conserve groundwater while taking unprofitable farmland out of cultivation—good for the Great Bend Prairie Aquifer and the refuge, and higher efficiency for the food producer.

09/28/2026

It happens just once every two years: KU Field Station Visitors' Day, this Saturday, Oct. 3, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tour research areas usually closed to the public, visit with researchers as you wish and enjoy time in nature.

✅ Indoor restrooms and drinking fountains
✅ Parking
✅ Very family-friendly (all ages)
✅ Go at your own pace
✅ Flexible: Follow the full 1.5-mile tour loop, just do some of it, or stay close to the Armitage Center (everyone in your party can do what works for them)

See the Facebook event on the KU Field Station page for all the details.

Our research center has managed the Field Station since 1999. It's a resource for the public, all of KU and researchers everywhere.

The University of Kansas Field Station will open its core research area, located north of Lawrence, to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 3. The event is held every two years, and members of the public will be welcomed behind the scenes to tour restricted-access research areas at the Field Stati...

09/24/2026

So you know: The Kansas Biological Survey is on LinkedIn, and we invite you to follow us. We look forward to connecting and to sharing our findings and activities with the LinkedIn community here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kansas-biological-survey

09/21/2026

Whew! The weather cooled off just in time for our Sunday booth at the Kansas State Fair. Jude Kastens and David Weiss of our Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program chatted with fairgoers and handed out maps of the Kansas and Arkansas river watersheds, new greeting cards with native flowers and butterflies, and our sunflower-yellow buttons with our dragonfly artwork (same as on Jude's T-shirt).

A great day! More photos to come.

09/18/2026

Population growing, amount of arable land shrinking, water precious. Our researchers are working with three other institutions—Arkansas State, K-State, Univ of Nebraska—to test specific microscopic for their potential to confer drought tolerance to wheat and rice, staple food crops.

Kansas produces 20% of U.S. wheat; Arkansas produces 45% of U.S. rice.

The INVAM collection of living mycorrhizal fungi, housed at KU, is crucial to this study. It's the largest of its kind in the world and an international research resource.

The project also will include interviews with farmers in the region to learn more about their challenges and opportunities as they make decisions that affect the global food system.

A new National Science Foundation grant will bring $1.9 million to KU to test specific types of microscopic soil fungi for their potential to build drought tolerance in wheat and rice.

09/16/2026

Monitoring reservoirs for is not a one-size-fits-all job. For continuous monitoring of three Kansas reservoirs, our lake team uses a customized approach to address different issues and different goals:

💧 Clinton Lake: predict algal blooms, toxins and taste-and-odor compounds to help optimize drinking water treatment;

🚰 Marion: predict metal issues (such as manganese) to help optimize drinking water treatment;

🌊 Tuttle Creek: monitor sediment in the reservoir to maximize water quality during water injection dredging.

AND this research takes very​ highly specialized equipment. If you want to find out more about how it all works, check out this easy-to-read write-up in a publication from the equipment supplier, Fondriest Environmental, Inc.

Thanks again to the Kansas Water Office for support for this research.

Data from real-time water quality monitoring buoys are helping to drive better water treatment plant management in Kansas.