News
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.
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.
Thu, 11/07/2024
A bountiful season on the prairie
This new edition of Kelly Kindscher's iconic first book, “Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide,” first published in 1987, includes new native plant species and variants, a deeper understanding of plant ecology and uses to share and, he says, something more important.
Mon, 11/04/2024
KU professor leads cultural burn at Field Station
A prescribed burn led by a KU professor at the KU Field Station Saturday morning will help ensure the area’s biodiversity and soil health in the future. Melinda Adams, KU assistant professor, worked with Brett Ramey and MK Kerron to place the initial fire on Saturday.
Thu, 10/31/2024
Can fungi save this endangered Hawaiian tree?
Working with the native mycorrhizal fungi that naturally occur with a high-conservation-value plant can help re-establish it on its home ground — as with the native prairie grasses in our region, with this Hawaiian gardenia and in conservation efforts far and wide.
Tue, 10/08/2024
$1.5M grant will create global macro-network of plant-fungal research
A new project led by the University of Kansas will bring together scientists throughout the world who study the interactions between plants and microscopic fungi. A $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation will support the creation of a global transdisciplinary network to address the grand challenges within the realm of plant-fungal interactions.
Wed, 10/02/2024
KU Field Station marks 75th anniversary with Visitors’ Day Oct. 5
In celebration of its 75th anniversary, the University of Kansas Field Station will open its core research area from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 5 for its first public Visitors’ Day in more than 20 years. Members of the public will be welcomed behind the scenes to tour restricted-access research areas.
Wed, 09/18/2024
Fall equinox tour of KU medicinal garden planned Sept. 22
The public is invited to the fall semiannual tour of the University of Kansas Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden at 6 p.m. Sept. 22 on the autumnal equinox.
Tue, 09/17/2024
Postdoctoral researcher continues cycle of mentorship for future plant scientists
In this profile, Joel Swift, postdoc in the Wagner Lab, reflects on the importance of a culture of encouragement for students.
Tue, 09/17/2024
University Distinguished Professor to explore how today’s ecosystems can help predict Earth’s future in inaugural lecture
University Distinguished Professor Sharon Billings will deliver “Predicting Ecosystems of the Future with the Forests and Grasslands of Today” on Oct. 1 in the Beren Petroleum Conference Center of Slawson Hall G192.
Fri, 08/09/2024
Remembering Stan Roth
Desiring to share his boundless enthusiasm for the natural world, he embarked on a teaching career at Lawrence High School in 1959 and taught high school students biology in Lawrence for 40 years.
Thu, 08/08/2024
Emergence of late southern-state monarchs still shrouded in mystery
Monarchs are recognized internationally as threatened, so observers are keen to see the population rebound somewhat this season. During the 2023 migration, drought zapped nectar-providing wildflowers and added heavily to factors that take their toll annually. The latest overwintering population was the second-lowest on record, the lowest in over a decade.
Sun, 07/28/2024
Kansas lakes contain hidden pollution with unknown health impacts, study finds
Seemingly pristine water could be hiding a tiny form of man-made pollution which is drawing the attention of scientists in a global study. Two researchers from the University of Kansas (KU) are shedding light on the presence of microplastics in Kansas lakes and reservoirs alongside more than 70 other researchers in a global study, according to KU. See the full story from KSNT, Topeka, Kan.