Service to Kansas 2023

Our research center holds dual status as a KU research unit and a nonregulatory state agency, has longstanding partnerships with other state agencies, working closely with the Kansas Water Office, the Kansas Geological Survey and other entities to address issues of concern to the State and to Kansas communities. A sample of current projects follows.

Studying wetland formation: With an $80,000 USEPA/Kansas Water Office Wetland Program Development Grant, Debbie Baker, aquatic researcher, and Jude Kastens, associate research professor, completed the project, “Shoreline lacustrine wetlands in large Kansas reservoirs: status, trends and limiting factors.” Baker and other researchers from our center surveyed wetlands along the shorelines of eight Kansas reservoirs, evaluated the plant communities, and took water and sediment samples. The results will inform lake managers and others what physical factors affect where wetlands develop along the reservoirs.

Connecting Kansas with global biodiversity tracking: Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory staff—Jennifer Delisle, Craig Freeman, Kelly Kindscher‚ and Sara Baer, Survey director, met with Sean O’Brien, NatureServe CEO and president, to discuss the role of natural heritage programs in providing continent-wide biodiversity data. The Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory is one of more than 60 member organizations collaborating with NatureServe, a U.S.-based organization that has for nearly 50 years collected, analyzed and provided biodiversity information to inform conservation actions across North America. After their meeting, Heritage staff and Sean, joined by KU Field Station Director Bryan Foster, senior scientist and professor of EEB, visited the Anderson County Prairie Preserve to discuss prairie conservation in Kansas. At the Preserve, Sean was able to see fruiting plants of the federally protected Mead’s milkweed, a high-priority species for conservation in Kansas.

Supporting our science teachers: In June,16 Kansas middle school science teachers worked with researchers and staff at the KU Field Station during the fifth and final Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute, an educational outreach program developed by Peggy Schultz, researcher, as part of the NSF EPSCoR “Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas” (MAPS) project. A KU News release provides details.

Evaluating our sources of drinking water: The Harris Lab received $70,000 in funding from the Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment to evaluate the biological condition of Marion Reservoir and the density of the water at different levels. The lake is prone to blue-green algae blooms; four lakes draw drinking water from this reservoir in the Flint Hills.