KBS research was recently highlighted as an outstanding example of environmental monitoring in the prestigous journal Science. The review article, titled "Monitoring Earth's Critical Zone," used KBS as an example of how to measure changes in greenhouse gas emissions:

“More than half of Earth's terrestrial surface is now plowed, pastured, fertilized, irrigated, drained, fumigated, bulldozed, compacted, eroded, reconstructed, manured, mined, logged, orconverted to new uses. These activities have long-lasting effects on life-sustaining processes of the near-surface environment, recently termed Earth's "critical zone."...

A notable example of how monitoring can quantify land-management’s control over emissions of the greenhouse gases CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide is found at the Kellogg Biological Station’s Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) in Michigan. Decades of data from Kellogg’s permanent field plots indicate that substantial fractions of greenhouse emissions from agriculture and forestry can be mitigated by land management strategies. This landmark study…will likely be instrumental in controlling agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.”

Kathleen, an LTER technician, is shown here collecting gas samples at the LTER main experiment. So far this year, lab technicians have collected gas samples 15 times from the experiment.

For more information about LTER research click here!

Full Citation:

Monitoring Earth's Critical Zone. Daniel deB. Richter, Jr. and Megan L. Mobley.  Science 20 November 2009: Vol. 326. no. 5956, pp. 1067 - 1068
DOI: 10.1126/science.1179117