Name: Sarah Bodbyl (bodbyl@msu.edu)  

Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Lab: Getty/GK-12
Degrees Held: B.S., Biology, Calvin College, 2006; Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 2012

Website: https://www.msu.edu/~bodbyl/

Name: Idelle Cooper (cooperi@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Lab: Mittelbach
Degrees Held: B.A., Biology and Art, Grinnell College, 2001; Ph.D., Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, Indiana University, 2008
Research Statement: I am interested in studying the intersection between evolution and ecology in order to understand phenotypic variation.  My interests include the evolutionary consequences of mate choice and species recognition as well as viability selection in different habitats.  My current research focuses on the evolution color variation and mating behavior in the damselfly genera Megalagrion and Calopteryx.
Website: https://www.msu.edu/~cooperi

Name: Tim Dickson (tdickson@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Lab: Gross
Degrees Held: B.A., Biology, St. Olaf College, 1999; Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 2006
Statement: I am a plant ecologist broadly interested in the importance of regional dispersal and colonization and local habitat conditions in controlling plant diversity.  Much of my work has focused on topics of restoration, invasive species, and effects of fertilization on colonization and plant diversity.  I am currently working on long-term fertilization and plant biodiversity datasets from the Kellogg Biological Station, and I am also working on how spatial variability of forage species distributions alters cattle grazing behavior.

 Name: Kyle Edwards (edwar466@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Lab: Klausmeier
Degrees Held: B.S., Biology / Religion & Humanities, Univ.  of Chicago, 2003; Ph.D., Population Biology, Univ. of California - Davis, 2010
Research Statement: I'm interested in a variety of fundamental questions in community ecology related to the maintenance of species diversity. What are the mechanisms that allow the coexistence of similar species? What are the trait tradeoffs that underlie these mechanisms? How strongly do different kinds of mechanisms tend to maintain diversity, and how do multiple mechanisms combine in particular communities to create the diversity we observe?

For my dissertation, I worked on these questions in a community of marine invertebrates, and now I'm working with Chris Klausmeier and Elena Litchman to address these and similar questions in phytoplankton. In general I like to combine models with data to better understand community dynamics, and I like to use the latest and greatest statistical methods, mostly in order to discover technical terms like 'sandwich estimator'.

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/kyleedwardsresearch/home

Name: Ilia Gelfand (igelfand@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station/GLBRC
Lab: Robertson
Research Interests: Biogeochemistry, biosphere atmosphere interactions
Citations at Google Scholar:
http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=tDCTZBcAAAAJ
Degrees Held: M.S. 2002, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Ph.D. 2008, Weizmann Institute of Science
Statement: My current research focuses on the sustainability of biofuel production in agriculture. Currently, I’m trying to answer the question of how much carbon production of the “green” energy costs, or how “green” is green energy? The main attempt in my current research is to combine carbon budgets of the different biofuel producing systems.The carbon budget is simply mass balance of all carbon (CO2) used to produce the biofuel in a given agro-ecosystem. For this end we are measuring soil emissions of the main greenhouse gases, using automatic chambers together with measurement of biomass production and changes in soil organic carbon concentration.

My past research has looked at the influence of afforestation of semi-arid shrubland on the soil and ecosystem N cycling. 

Name: Neville Millar (millarn@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Lab: Phil Robertson (EPRI)
Research Interests: Ecosystem Sustainability, Greenhouse Gases, Carbon and Nitrogen Biogeochemistry
Research Location: KBS
Degrees Held: B.Sc. 1994. University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK; M.Sc. 1996. University of London, UK; Ph.D. 2002. Imperial College London, UK.
Statement: My research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry, with the aim of utilizing various land management strategies to mitigate these emissions, reduce nutrient loss and promote ecosystem sustainability. My past work has looked at agroforestry practices on smallholder farms in East Africa, and the effects of elevated carbon dioxide (FACE) on crop yield and microbial communities in European grasslands.

Name: Brian Petersen (briancp@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Degrees Held: B.S., Environmental Science, Univ. of Idaho, 1999; M.S., Forest Resources and Master of Public Administration, Univ. of Washington, 2003; Ph.D., Environmental Studies, Univ. of California - Santa Cruz, 2010
Research Statement: My research centers on how public institutions and land managers can adapt to the challenges posed by climate change. Previous work focused on how forest systems and institutions have responded to the unprecedented forest dieback caused by beetle outbreaks. Currently, I am assessing climate change adaptation perceptions of natural resource professionals in the Great Lakes Region in a project in conjunction with the Michigan Nature Conservancy as well as eliciting expert opinion on how best to feed the world while maintaining environmental and social stability on a project with Professor Sieglinde Snapp. Lastly, colleagues at KBS and I are identifying climate change adaptation strategies for US based agriculture and assessing to what extent farmers believe those strategies are viable or appropriate.

Name: Sarah Placella (placella@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Degrees Held: B.A., Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 2003; Ph.D., Environmental Science, University of California - Berkeley, 2011
Statement: Microorganisms control emissions of greenhouse gases, nutrient cycling, and degradation of toxins. While some scientists study these processes in cultured bacteria and others study ecosystem-level fluxes, my work links the activity of microorganisms in their natural environment to the ecosystem fluxes they produce. My current research investigates water availability as a driver of microbial dormancy in soils and microbial dormancy, in turn, as a regulator of carbon dioxide production. My postdoctoral research is the logical next step after my dissertation in which I studied microbial resuscitation following wetting of dry soil and the associated ecosystem fluxes (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, ammonium, and nitrate).

Name: Sarah Roley (roleysar@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station/GLBRC
Degrees Held: B.S. Biology, B.A. English, Bemidji State University, 2003; M.S., Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 2005; Ph.D., Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 2012
Research Statement: I am broadly interested biogeochemical cycling in agricultural landscapes.  As part of the Great Lakes Biofuels Research Center (GLBRC), I am currently examining the influence of potential biofuels crops on nitrogen cycling.  In addition, I am the Research Coordinator for Sustainability in the GLBRC.  Previously, I examined nitrogen cycling in agriculturally-influenced streams and floodplains.

Name: Maria Stockenreiter (stockenr@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Degrees Held: Diploma (M.S.), 2007, Biology (Ecology, Neuroscience, Zoology), University of Munich; Ph.D, 2012, University of Munich (Aquatic Ecology)
Research Statement: Algal biofuels are among the most promising sources of renewable energy. However, algal biofuel research focuses mainly on identifying and growing monocultures, which are producing high amounts of lipids. However, monocultures may not have the best efficiency of utilizing resources, due to their limited physiological resource use possibilities. Furthermore these cultures are prone to invasions by other species (e.g. algae, zooplankton), resulting in reduced turnover of lipids. In contrast, polycultures are known to have higher resource efficiency and are often more stable against environmental changes (temperature, resources, invasion). I am interested in figuring out general ecological patterns ensuring high lipid production in phytoplankton polycultures. For this purpose, it is necessary to investigate links between algal resource use efficiency, complementarity in resource use and lipid production. In particular, the resource uptake of different functional groups and their interaction in polycultures are of major interest, as algal functional groups are known to be relatively contrary in light absorbance and nutrient uptake dynamics. I will therefore use the knowledge on trade-offs among traits to optimize resource use and lipid yields in polycultures.

Name: Sara Syswerda (parrsar1@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Degrees Held: Ph.D., Crop and Soil Sciences and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior, Michigan State University, 2009; B.S., Biological Sciences, Cornell University
Research Statement: I am currently doing research in both nutrient cycling as well as science education. I am the coordinator for the KBS K-12 Partnership and the Math Science Partnership. I do research on how students think about science and how they learn science. I also do research at the KBS LTER site on nutrient cycling and ecosystem services from agricultural systems.

Website: www.kbs.msu.edu/education/k-12-partnership

Name: Casey TerHorst (terhors3@msu.edu)
Department: Kellogg Biological Station
Lab: Lau
Degrees Held: Ph.D., Biological Science, Florida State University, 2010; M.S., Biological Sciences, California State University-Northridge, 2004; B.A., History, University of Southern California, 1998
Research Statement: My research combines theoretical and experimental approaches that bridge the gap between evolutionary biology and community ecology. I ask how evolution affects species interactions and diversity, and reciprocally how multiple species interactions in diverse communities affect trait evolution. One focus of my research asks how evolution on ecological time scales affects the outcome of species interactions. However, the outcomes of species interactions in diverse communities are complicated by multiple direct and indirect interactions between many species. Consequently, I also examine the evolutionary importance of indirect species interactions to better understand how species evolve in a community context.

I have explored these questions in a number of different model communities, including California grasslands, pitcher plant inquiline communities, subtidal seagrass beds, sea urchins congeners, and marine fouling communities.

Website: http://www.msu.edu/~terhors3