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The University of Kansas Field Station is dedicated to field-based environmental research and education. The Field Station is located within the transition zone (ecotone) between the eastern deciduous forest and tallgrass prairie biomes. Faculty, students, and others use the 1,375 ha (3,400 acres) of diverse native and managed habitats, experimental systems, support facilities, and longterm databases to undertake an outstanding array of scholarly activities. The Field Station is available to any qualified person or group whose research, teaching, or conservation interests are compatible with our mission. Please contact us!
Station Highlights
Native Medicinal Plant Research Program
Researchers are combining ethnobotany (cultural use of plants) and chemistry to identify naturally occurring medicinal compounds that can be used in marketable natural remedies, health-care and cosmetic products, and veterinary treatments. This project, overseen by Dr. Barbara Timmermann (KU Department of Medicinal Chemistry) and Dr. Kelly Kindscher (Kansas Biological Survey), is being funded by a five-year, $5 million grant from Heartland Plant Innovations (Kansas Bioscience Authority). The KU Field Station provides a field site for growing plants, where factors such as water and nutrients can be adjusted to test their effect on the production of various plant compounds. The Field Station also serves as one of many collection sites for plant materials. For more information on this work, please see nativeplants.ku.edu.
Photos:
Above--Akins Prairie, a 17-acre native prairie remnant southeast of Lawrence,
KS.
Right--Echinacea angustifolia; more wild echinacea has been harvested
in Kansas than in any other state.
News and Events
KU Field Station
Newsletter
The current
issue of the Field Station newsletter, News and Notes, can be viewed
here.
To view archived copies, click
here.
New Weather Station
A new automated weather station has been installed at the Field Station
as part of both national and state climatological networks. The data serve
broad needs, in addition to supporting the many researchers at the Field Station.
Read more about this initiative in the Kansas Water Office newsletter, HydroGram.
Nature Trails
There are a number of self-guided nature trails available at the
Field Station. Please see the
attached map for more information.
Small Grants
Program
Since 2003, the University of Kansas Field Station has made available a number
of small grants ($300-$500) each year to help support undergraduate and graduate
student research at the field station during the summer. We encourage
a diversity of research projects--not only ecological studies but projects
in history, engineering, geology, geography, and other areas may be funded. For
additional information and instructions for application, click
here.
Ecology Seminar
Series
These talks are held on Fridays at noon in Room 130 Higuchi Hall (Kansas Biological
Survey). Topics are of broad interest to ecologists and environmental scientists
and are open to all. Click
here for the schedule. Bring a lunch and come join us!
Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology Department
Weekly seminars are held on Tuesdays.
