Research

Current research may be viewed by unit in the tabs below. A complete list of Kansas Biological Survey research initiatives is available here in tabular form. Use the search bar in the upper-right corner of the page to search for specific research by keyword.

Featured research

Bathymetric Surveys of Kansas Reservoirs

ASTRA applies its experience of reservoir, stream, and water quality assessment, remote sensing, and geospatial technologies to provide state and local officials with the facts needed to make informed decisions about the safety, supply, and reliability of our valuable water resources. The bathymetric surveys help the state better understand the sources, transport, and deposition of ...

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Development of Automated Extraction of Reservoir Pre-Impoundment Surfaces from Acoustic Echosounder Data
Sediment Studies of Augusta City Lake and Santa Fe (Augusta) Lake, Kansas
Sediment Sampling in Kansas Reservoirs
Bathymetric Surveys of Kansas Reservoirs

Featured research

eDNA sampling as a non-invasive monitoring tool for threatened and endangered species: Experimental studies using Topeka Shiners (Notropis topeka)

Topeka Shiner.

From a series of experimental tanks (i.e. tank mesocosms) at the large aquatic mesocosm facility located on the University of Kansas Field Station (KFS), CPCB will sample holding water of cultured populations of Topeka shiner from Kansas.  Our objectives are to 1. determine the relationship between Topeka shiner population densities and detection of eDNA ...

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Asian Carp Distribution Study Using Environmental DNA (eDNA)
Identifying floodplain alleviation from post-settlement land use activities in the Delaware River Basin (Kansas): a proof of concept study
eDNA sampling as a non-invasive monitoring tool for threatened and endangered species: Experimental studies using Topeka Shiners (Notropis topeka)

Featured research

Soil Erosion as an Influence on Atmospheric CO2

Recent studies indicate that soil erosion may serve as a net sink for carbon, though this is an unresolved controversy in the literature. We have developed a user-friendly, spreadsheet-based model that permits investigators to examine an eroding soil profile of interest and determine the extent to which its erosion results in a net atmospheric carbon ...

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Temperature Sensitivity of Substrate Decomposition from Enzymes to Microbial Communities
Landscape Legacies in Rivers: Retrospective Analyses of Changes in Ecosystem Function across Two Centuries
The Biogeochemistry of Soil Nitrogen Cycling with Changing Precipitation Regimes
Linking Whole Ecosystem Stoichiometry to Individual-level Nutrient Dynamics
Vegetation and Moisture Heterogeneity as Influences on Mass and Energy Fluxes and Lower Boundary Layer Turbulence
Soil Organic Matter Processing with Warming in the Moist Boreal Forests of Eastern Canada
Information Theory Metrics and Land-Atmosphere Interactions
Soil Erosion as an Influence on Atmospheric CO2
Regional Impacts of Global Climate Change
Tree Susceptibility to Insect-Driven Disturbance
Stable Isotopes of Carbon and Oxygen as Indicators of Tree Response to Climate
Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Microbial Activity with Elevated CO2 and Altered N Availability in a Pine Forest
Biofuel Crop Choices and Regional Carbon Cycling
Purchase of a Cyber-Enabled Regional 400 MHz Solid-State NMR Spectrometer
Dissertation Research: Beyond the Black Box: Understanding the Relationship between Microbial Community Structure and Function under Environmental Stress and Disturbance
Soil Carbon Dynamics with Climate Change in Boreal Forests of Newfoundland and Labrador
Assessing Predisposition to Red Oak Borer-Induced Oak Mortality Using Dendrochronological Techniques
Eco-forecasting in the Great Plains

Featured research

NEON--National Ecological Observatory Network

The KU Field Station is slated to play a role in the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The National Science Foundation created NEON to establish a network for collecting ecological and climatic observations across the continental US, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Data obtained by NEON focus on how land use, climate, and invasive species ...

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Algal biofuel research
NEON--National Ecological Observatory Network
Wetland and wet meadow restoration on the Robinson Tract
Ecological studies and captive propagation of the Topeka Shiner
Long-term studies of secondary succession and community assembly in the prairie-forest ecotone of eastern Kansas