The close proximity of natural and managed habitats makes an ideal setting for education, research, and training programs in ecology and evolutionary biology.

An interdisciplinary resident faculty and support staff maintain year round research activities at KBS that support a diversity of programs and maintains modern research facilitates that can also support the seasonal use by visiting researchers and graduate students.  

Laboratory research facilities at KBS are based mainly in the Academic-Stack Building, located at the main academic complex on the shores of Gull Lake. Facilities include research labs for resident faculty and visiting researchers; common-use instruments; faculty, student, and administrative offices; and classrooms, teaching labs, computer workrooms, and the Gull Lake Library branch of the MSU library system. A research greenhouse is adjacent to the Academic-Stack Building.

Field research facilities include:

• the Experimental Pond Laboratory, a series of eighteen 30m diameter ponds with an associated field laboratory;
• Terrestrial Ecology Field Laboratory, adjacent to successional fields and a fenced common garden;
• Long-term Ecological Research which includes long-term experiments on the ecology of row-crops and successional communities and has recently been expanded to include experiments on ecological processes in cellusolosic biofuels (GLBRC).
• The Kellogg Farm and Farming Systems Center and supports field-scale and small plot research on cropping systems. The newly established Pasture-based Dairy Research and Education Facility [KG12]at the Kellogg Farm provides a unique facility for integrating research and outreach programs on dairy production and rural communities.
• Research laboratory space is also available at the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary.