News
Thu, 10/30/2025
New study explores ‘legacy effects’ of soil microbes on plants across Kansas
Findings from the University of Kansas could offer important context for farmers who want to use beneficial microbes to improve yields. Today, microbial commercialization in agriculture represents an expanding multibillion dollar sector.
Fri, 10/03/2025
KU community mourns death of longtime Kansas Biological Survey director Ed Martinko
The University of Kansas is mourning the death of Ed Martinko, longtime director of the Kansas Biological Survey, Professor Emeritus of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and a former faculty member in KU’s Environmental Studies Program. He was a Lawrence resident and retired from KU in 2019. He died Sept. 16.
Fri, 09/12/2025
The library of spores: Behind the effort to grow mycorrhizal fungi for ecosystem restoration
You'd need a microscope to understand the true treasure of this collection. Scattered in all this dirt are spores galore in various shapes, sizes and colors, and with different surface ornamentation. Some look like delicate glass beads, others like tiny acorns—their individuality helps scientists tell species apart. All the spores—fatty reproductive cells—have the understated potential to restore out-of-balance ecosystems.
Mon, 08/25/2025
Graduate researchers like Reb Bryant are trying to preserve what remains of our Tallgrass prairie ...
The Tallgrass prairie once stretched from North Dakota down through Iowa and Illinois through the East central part of Texas. Today, approximately 4% of that vast resource remain, mostly in Kansas’s Flint Hills region. That's why graduate researchers like Reb Bryant are trying to preserve what remains and restore idle land with help from something unexpected. Fungi!
Mon, 07/28/2025
Spatial Signals podcast interview: The course catalog was The Yellow Pages
In this interview, Dana Peterson of the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program talks about the Kansas Biological Survey, archiving Landsat imagery from 9-Track Tapes, spectroradiometers, watersheds and green-up, field work on the Rio Grande, the Sentinel GreenReport that leverages Sentinel-2 imagery for vegetation monitoring over time, eastern red cedar woody encroachment, and mapping and collecting data for invasive species analysis.
Wed, 07/16/2025
KU professors awarded Big 12 Faculty Fellowships for 2025-2026 academic year
Six KU faculty members have been selected to participate in the Big 12 Faculty Fellowship over the summer and the upcoming academic year. These scholars will visit and collaborate with faculty and students across the Big 12 Conference.
Wed, 07/09/2025
KU Professor's Book Explores Edible Plants of the Prairie
The Kansas prairie is full of edible plants. But it's important to know which ones can be eaten and which ones should be avoided. Luckily, a University of Kansas professor has taken out all the guesswork. Commentator Rex Buchanan has been thumbing through the KU professor's revised and expanded book called: Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie.
Thu, 06/19/2025
Kansas science teachers to take part in KU Field Station immersive program June 24–26
Ten secondary school science teachers from Kansas will take part in the Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute, an immersive program that gives secondary educators the chance to work with KU scientists to explore resources and gain new ideas for their classrooms.
Mon, 06/16/2025
Annual summer solstice tour of KU medicinal garden planned June 20
The public is invited to the summer semiannual tour of the University of Kansas Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden at 7 p.m. June 20, the summer solstice.
Wed, 05/28/2025
New digital tool provides satellite monitoring of crop health across US
The Sentinel GreenReport Plus, created at the University of Kansas with support from the KansasView and AmericaView programs, is a web-based app with free satellite monitoring and analysis of vegetation and crops for Kansas and the nation.
Wed, 05/14/2025
KU Researchers Launch the Sentinel Greenreport® Plus to Advance Vegetation Monitoring Across the US
Researchers at the University of Kansas, under the KansasView program, have introduced Sentinel GreenReport® Plus, a cutting-edge web-based geospatial application designed to help users monitor vegetation health, detect land cover changes, and understand climate anomalies across the United States.
Mon, 05/05/2025
Trump administration pauses a moonshot push to grow biofuel crops with less fertilizer
Scientists in Kansas, Missouri and other states were poised to start research to cut U.S. reliance on fertilizer imports, keep biofuel farming cost-competitive and tackle a potent greenhouse gas. But 10 days after taking office, the Trump administration decided to hold off on this $38 million investment that the energy department had previously boasted could save farmers $6 billion in fertilizer spending.
Thu, 04/24/2025
Study of ‘spatial synchrony’ using long-term data exposes ecological trends and could boost conservation, farming
New research from the University of Kansas in Ecology Letters reveals study of spatial synchrony over a long enough timescale leads to better testing of ideas, improved statistical results and new conceptual realms for understanding ecology, conserving species and farming more profitably.
Sun, 04/20/2025
Monarch butterfly super generation live up to 9 times longer than most monarchs
One of the most remarkable and mysterious migrations in the natural world is happening right now from Mexico to the United States. Tens of millions of monarch butterflies are on an epic aerial journey home.
Wed, 04/16/2025
Four students receive Kansas Biological Survey Student Research Awards for 2025
The Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research at KU has awarded $4,000 in funding this spring for student research to be conducted this year. Four students will receive assistance through the research center’s 2025 Student Research Awards.
Mon, 04/07/2025
'Meadowscaping': The people turning their lawns into meadows
Turning lawns into meadows can have big benefits for people, wildlife and the climate. Here's why 'meadowscaping' has become the latest gardening craze.
Tue, 04/01/2025
Podcast: Those soil health products may be a waste of money
Symbiotic fungi are all the rage right now. Farmers want them in their fields, gardeners want them in veggie patches and flowerbeds. The excitement has given rise to a billion-dollar mycorrhizae market, but many products don’t deliver on their promises. Come visit the world’s biggest collection of these fungi to learn what makes them so great — and why you should think twice before buying them.
Thu, 03/27/2025
KTWU Inspire 509: Connecting with Nature
In this episode of the Topeka-based PBS station, KTWU, hosts interview Sheena Parsons, manager of the KU Field Station, along with Bluebird Taylor, naturalist supervisor at the Baker University Wetlands Discovery Center.
Wed, 02/05/2025
Burning Rice Woodland
In this podcast by the Kansas Forest Service, Sheena Parsons, manager of the KU Field Station, discusses the prescribed burn of the Rice Woodland tract with EJ Jamison, Northeast Rural District forester, and Bryce Haverkamp, Northeast District fire management officer.
Thu, 01/23/2025
Why scientists are enlisting fungi to save endangered plants
The mycorrhizae that live among and in plant roots can boost the health of certain species, and even whole ecosystems — but scientists warn against a one-size-fits-all approach.
Fri, 01/17/2025
Making farms more like prairie might help prevent diseases, and KU researchers are studying how
With a multimillion-dollar federal grant, University of Kansas researchers will be studying a big idea for how farms might prevent crop diseases from spreading: Act less like a farm and more like a prairie.
Thu, 01/16/2025
KLWN interview with Jim Bever
In this podcast, Jim Bever, senior scientist and KU Foundation Distinguished Professor, is interviewed on local radio station KLWN about a new nature-based study of pathogen resistance in perennial crop systems, with support from a $2.5 million grant.
Thu, 01/09/2025
The U.S. could protect monarch butterflies as a threatened species
The monarch butterfly population continues to shrink due to factors such as climate change. People working to help the species say proposed federal protections could boost existing efforts.
Tue, 01/07/2025
$2.5M grant will support nature-based study of pathogen resistance in perennial crop systems
A new five-year, $2.5 million grant will support a KU-led project exploring alternative routes to pathogen resistance in a potential perennial oilseed crop, silflower (Silphium integrifolium). The project is funded through the federal program on Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases.
Wed, 12/18/2024
here-ing | An environmentally embedded artwork by Janine Antoni
In 2021, KU's Spencer Museum of Art began work on an environmentally embedded artwork by Janine Antoni at the KU Field Station. This 19-minute documentary chronicles the project from start to finish, following Antoni's collaborations with researchers across the University of Kansas for more than two years to create a two-mile walking labyrinth in the shape of the anatomy of a human ear.
Mon, 12/16/2024
Flood Mapping and Emergency Management: An Interview with Jude Kastens
In this Kansas NSF EPSCoR interview, Jude Kastens of the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing program discusses the real-world impacts of his projects and the partnerships that have helped bring them to life.
Sat, 12/07/2024
KU researchers document native prairie pastures in Douglas County to uncover how much remains
Before European settlement, Kansas was dominated by vast prairies of tall grasses and wildflowers. However, farming and development have since altered the landscape, prompting researchers at the University of Kansas to help uncover how much of it remains intact in Douglas County.
Prairie pastures, which include native prairie that has never been plowed being grazed by cattle, have played an important ecological role in the Douglas County landscape.
Wed, 12/04/2024
Soil health is big business, but KU researchers say many fungal products don't work as promised
University of Kansas scientists have combed through 250 commercial product trials detailed in peer-reviewed journals. Most of those trials checked to see if the promised fungi materialized on plant roots and helped the plants grow. And 88% of the time, the answer was no.
Fri, 11/29/2024
Rare wildflowers show resilience in Lawrence park where city carelessly applied herbicide
Each fall, Ken Lassman dons a thick pair of protective gloves and walks Lawrence’s Prairie Park remnant with a burlap sack, gathering seeds from the withering grasses and wildflowers. This remnant, he explained, is around 9,500 years old — a rare example of old-growth prairie in a region that has lost more than 96% of its native habitat to development and farmland.
Fri, 11/22/2024
KU researchers complete Native Pasture Survey project in western Douglas County
Jennifer Moody and Jennifer Delisle, of the Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research, have completed a Native Pasture Survey project that was funded through the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council’s Natural and Cultural Heritage grant program. They received a $38,731 grant in 2022.