KBS welcomes Jennifer Blesh as resident faculty member

Jennifer Blesh, an internationally recognized agroecologist, has joined Michigan State University as a resident faculty member at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station.

Blesh will hold appointments in MSU’s Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences as well as at KBS. Her interdisciplinary research applies ecological knowledge to foster transitions to sustainable agriculture and food systems. She joins MSU from the University of Michigan, where she’s served as an associate professor of ecosystem science and management and food systems in the School for Environment and Sustainability for the past 12 years.

About Jennifer Blesh

Blesh uses interdisciplinary approaches to study the ecological and social outcomes of food systems. Her research advances knowledge of ecological nutrient management, with an emphasis on diversified agroecosystems, soil nitrogen and carbon cycles, and legume nitrogen fixation. She also examines the social processes that shape food system transformation, from production through consumption, to support more ecologically sustainable and socially just systems.

“Our work identifying the outcomes of agricultural diversification with cover crop mixtures contributes to a better understanding of transitions away from reliance on commercial fertilizers and how to build resilience to a changing climate,” she said.

Her research program has been supported by competitive funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, or MDARD, and the National Science Foundation. She has published widely in leading scientific journals on agricultural diversification, soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics, and strategies to improve adoption of conservation and cover crop practices.

Blesh earned her doctoral and master’s degrees in soil and crop sciences from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in ecology from the University of Georgia. She previously served as a National Science Foundation International Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the Federal University of Mato Grosso in Brazil.

“I am thrilled to have this new opportunity to connect my on-farm research projects and networks with the rich, long-term data generated by the LTER, LTAR, and GLBRC experiments at KBS,” said Blesh. “Linking these research approaches will enable us to understand ecosystem processes and services across diverse agricultural contexts, which can inform how to shift public and private resources toward the systems that have the greatest ecological and social benefits.”

Red Cedar Distinguished Professorship

In addition to her appointments, Blesh also was named a Red Cedar Distinguished Professor, effective March 2, 2026. Established in 2022, the Red Cedar Distinguished Professor program recognizes current and new faculty for exemplary scholarly achievement, teaching excellence and alignment with MSU’s strategic research priorities. It supports the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty while enhancing the university’s national and global reputation.

Q&A with Dr. Blesh

What ongoing projects are you bringing with you to MSU?  Any students coming with you? 

We have several current projects that will continue when I join KBS. The largest is funded by MDARD and is an observational study in partnership with farmers in Michigan’s portion of the Western Lake Erie Basin. This study aims to understand relationships between management history, soil health, and water quality on working farms. We are identifying soil health indicators that are responsive to management in this region, with a focus on biological soil health, and linking changes in management to nutrient mass balances, which are an indicator of nutrient use efficiency and environmental performance. We are also measuring water quality outcomes on a subset of fields participating in the study with help from MSU’s Institute of Water Research.

I have a USDA AFRI-funded project in collaboration with partners at UM and the University of Vermont to understand how recycling human urine into high-quality urine-derived fertilizers impacts nitrogen cycling processes and soil health outcomes within the LTAR Aspirational Cropping System Experiment at KBS. We are also partnering with social scientists to understand pathways to implementation of UDF and circular nutrient economies in Michigan and beyond.

One of my former Ph.D. students is leading an ongoing study of environmental and management drivers of variation in cover crop outcomes across the Great Lakes region, using a citizen science approach. I have a current Ph.D. student who is studying how rotational grazing of an overwintering cover crop mixture impacts carbon and nitrogen cycling processes that indicate the potential for soil organic carbon accrual and nitrogen retention. This experiment has two sites: KBS and a working farm in southeastern Michigan. Finally, a Ph.D. student, Ana Gunther, who joined my lab last year, will be moving with me. Her research is part of the broader MDARD project and she will be developing new projects at KBS.

What are some of your hobbies?

It’s hard to find much time for hobbies these days (beyond playing with and caring for two young kids), but I enjoy cooking and baking bread, gardening, hiking, and playing piano.

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Contact: Cara LaLumia
Patty Bonito contributed to this article.
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