Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)/KBS005: Kellogg Biological Station Plant Community Resource Partitioning Experiment

LTER - Long-Term Ecological Research Program/Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTER/KBS005 [Summary adapted from the LTER Core Data Set Catalog]: Results from a set of experimental subplots within selected crop and successional communities (see KBS004) designed to determine how plants partition resources and whether crop-weed interactions vary in response to resource levels. Effects of N fertilizer on community production and partitioning at the species level determined by manipulating fertilizer inputs in the historically tilled early successional community and high chemical input CT and NT corn/ soybean treatments.

Competitive effects examined in the conventionally tilled (CT), no-till (NT), and poplar treatments by determining how crop density affects growth and nitrogen uptake in the presence and absence of competing weeds. The 1,000 ha W.K. Kellogg Biological Station has been administered by Michigan State University as a primary research facility since its 1929 deeding to the university by Kellogg. In its early years the Station was devoted to wildlife, forestry, and soil conservation research; during the past 20 years a research emphasis on ecology, production agronomy, and forest genetics has led to well-established and internationally recognized programs in each of these fields.