Michigan State University (MSU) is awarded a grant to construct a new greenhouse at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) to complement existing facilities at the Terrestrial-Aquatic Ecology Field Facility. The new greenhouse will enhance both educational and research opportunities at KBS. KBS combines access to diverse natural and managed habitats with modern laboratory and greenhouse facilities to provide an ideal site for research and educational activities in terrestrial and aquatic ecology. The existing greenhouse on the KBS main site is heavily used and has reached full capacity. The new facility will provide needed space for the increasing numbers of resident and visiting researchers requiring greenhouse access, along with a growing diversity and number of educational and outreach activities using this and other KBS facilities.
The existing KBS greenhouse was built in the 1920's as part of the W.K. Kellogg summer estate and has been renovated and updated several times in the past 20 years with NSF and MSU funding to create 3600 square feet of research space. The existing greenhouse is currently located at the KBS main site, near the Academic-Stack research building, which allows for convenient access to laboratory facilities, but is distant from the heavily used field research areas at KBS, including the Terrestrial-Aquatic Ecology Field Facility where the new greenhouse will be constructed. This facility currently includes the Plant Ecology Field Lab, the Experimental Pond Facility, a fenced common garden area (to exclude deer) that has the capacity to establish water and shade treatments, and open fields that can be used for experimental gardens and research plots. The construction of a new greenhouse at the Terrestrial-Aquatic Ecology Field Facility will allow KBS to continue to serve the needs of resident and visiting scientists, while enabling new research connections between terrestrial and aquatic ecologists. In addition, because of its proximity to existing field sites, the new greenhouse will facilitate studies requiring both greenhouse and field components. Finally, the combination of existing aquatic research facilities and the new greenhouse will provide an excellent arena for outreach and educational activities. KBS hosts tours that serve over 4,000 people annually; constructing a greenhouse facility to complete the Terrestrial-Aquatic Ecology Field Facility will provide a centralized location for tour groups to observe ongoing research in both terrestrial and aquatic systems. For more information please visit the KBS website at www.kbs.msu.edu/.
The goal of this grant was to build a field-based greenhouse to complete the integrated Terrestrial-Aquatic Ecology Field Facility at Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) and to support research in terrestrial plant ecology/evolutionary biology, aquatic ecology, and microbial ecology. This greenhouse expanded the use of KBS by both visiting, MSU, and KBS-resident staff for research, teaching, and outreach. The new greenhouse attaches to the Plant Terrestrial Ecology Field lab, is adjacent to large fenced plant field research plots, and is approximately 100m from the newly-renovated Pond facility. This proximity has proven invaluable for several of the experiments already conducted (see below), and has recently attracted an additional large-scale experiments to a nearby field site (a NutNet site, which will be part of the global NutNet experiment testing effects of nutrients and consumers on plant communities). Four post-doctoral researchers (one MSU, three resident KBS post-docs), three Ph.D. candidates, five visiting undergraduate researchers (Pomoma College, University of Rochester, Hampshire College, Cal State Long Beach, and Saint Ambrose University), and one visiting faculty member (Saint Ambrose University) have used the greenhouse since its completion in June 2011. Numerous manuscripts are in progress from these projects, including one manuscript in review at Evolution (Weese et al.) and several others in preparation for submission to American Naturalist (Grman et al.), Ecology (Getman-Pickering et al.), and Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment (Schmidt et al.). Notably, two of these manuscripts include undergraduate researchers as lead author. In addition, the data collected from additional greenhouse experiments will likely be included in several other manuscripts in early stages of preparation and have been presented at national meetings (e.g., 2012 & 2013 Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting; 2012 Society for the Study of Evolution Annual Meeting). The greenhouse has supported research that has contributed to three dissertations that are currently in progress, two completed undergraduate honors theses, and research funded by three NSF awards (PI Lau), including a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. Past and ongoing research in the greenhouse facility includes experiments in plant ecology and evolutionary biology. For example, one experiment pairs experimental greenhouse manipulations with data from the LTER network to investigate how mutualisms (positive interactions between species) influence plant responses to nitrogen deposition, a widespread global change. While plant community ecologists have studied community responses to nitrogen and other types of environmental change for decades, the mechanisms and consistency of responses across regional to global scales has only recently been thoroughly investigated and the role of mutualisms remains understudied. Another ongoing experiment investigates how nitrogen deposition influences the evolution of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia. Global nitrogen inputs have more than doubled since the Industrial Revolution, and understanding the biological consequences of increased nitrogen is a scientific problem of the highest priority. Theory predicts that nitrogen deposition will have large effects on the model mutualism between plants in the legume family and soil bacteria (rhizobia). This mutualism involves the exchange of carbon produced by plants for nitrogen fixed by rhizobia and is the primary source of naturally-fixed nitrogen on land. Nitrogen deposition is predicted to reduce the abundance of rhizobia and cause the evolution of less-cooperative rhizobium mutualists, resulting in lower rates of nitrogen -fixation. As a result, the effects of nitrogen deposition on this important mutualism may change plant community composition, increase reliance on synthetic fertilizers, and influence the global N cycle. Greenhouse experiments have supported theoretical predictions and have shown that nitrogen deposition has caused the evolution of less cooperative rhizobia. Additional studies have shown that the evolution of reduced cooperation influences plant communities and nitrogen availability. A third experiment uses the greenhouse as a staging ground for seedling germination needed for a large scale field experiment investigating how natural enemies influence the success of invasive species. While numerous studies have tested whether invasive species escape enemies, few studies have tested whether escape from enemies actually increases the relative success of invasive species over native competitors. The location of the new greenhouse near field sites has facilitated this large-scale study (approximately 1600 plants representing 43 different species). The greenhouse location makes it accessible to both visitors and classes. Tours highlighting research conducted at the Terrestrial-Aquatic Ecology Field Facility have been attended by K-12 teachers attending workshops hosted by the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) GK-12 program and summer courses at KBS including, Introduction to Ecology lecture (ZOL355, 12 students per year) and SpartaNature (a novel program introducing incoming freshman to college science courses, ~60 students per year). The expanded greenhouse space also allowed for an Introduction to Ecology Lab testing how the environment influence the evolution of plant developmental traits conducted in collaboration with campus faculty Dr. Katherine Osteryoung as proposed in her recent NSF award.
