The rest of the country is looking to Michigan State University’s (MSU) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site at the Kellogg Biological Station as the prototype for how to set up and maintain agricultural LTER sites.
The July/August issue of the journal BioScience calls for the United States to use the internationally known program as a model for agricultural research and set up a network of LTER-like sites across the country.
"Basically, scientists from around the country are asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create a network of sites like MSU’s,” says Phil Robertson with MSU’s Crop and Soil Sciences and Kellogg Biological Station.
Typically, agricultural research projects are funded for two to three years, but LTER sites allow for much longer research. The MSU LTER site is one of 26 LTER sites in the country, but is the only one to study agriculture.
MSU’s LTER research looks at how biodiversity — plants, animals and microbes in agricultural landscapes — contributes to farm productivity, environmental performance and profitability. The site attracts researchers from all over the world and has recently hosted scientists from Taiwan, China and France.
Source: Phil Robertson, MSU
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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