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LTER Data Nuggets
The following Data Nuggets are written by LTER scientists and created using LTER Data.
To learn more about the ongoing collaboration between Data Nuggets and the LTER, check out our blog posts, “Data Nuggets: small activities with big impacts for students” and “LTER Data Nuggets: Breathing new life into long-term data“. If you have any questions about the research in an LTER Data Nugget, or want help accessing original datasets, please contact us or the Education and Outreach Coordinator (EOC) for that site.
| Title | LTER Site | EOC & Website | Content Level | Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Blinking out? | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 2 | Many people have fond memories of watching fireflies blink across open fields and collecting them in jars as children. This is one of the reasons why fireflies are a beloved insect species. However, there is concern that their populations are in decline. Scientists turned to the longest-running study of fireflies known to science to see if this is the case! |
 | Little butterflies on the prairie | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 2 | Many farmers are concerned with growing our food while still protecting habitat wildlife. They want to know - how can we grow food for ourselves while still providing good habitat for other species? Prairie strips are a new idea that might help both farmers and the environment. These strips are small areas of prairie that can be added to farm fields. They look like rows of flowers and grasses within a field. They create habitat for many species, like butterflies, birds, ants, and even microscopic fungi and bacteria! |
 | Farms in the fight against climate change | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 2 | Different farming practices affect the amount of carbon stored in soil, an important factor for soil health and climate change. Soil scientist Caro analyzed long-term data from a 30-year experiment at Kellogg Biological Station, comparing four land management types—including conventional farming, no-till, and cover crops—to see which ones best increase soil carbon. Her work helps identify practices that benefit both farmers and the planet. |
 | Microbes facing tough times | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 3 | As the climate changes, Michigan is expected to experience more drought. Scientists are looking into how crop mutualistic interactions with microbes may help them withstand drought periods. First they need to know how microbes are impacted by different carbon and drought conditions. |
 | Bringing back the Trumpeter Swan | Kellogg Biological Station LTER & Kellogg Bird Sanctuary | Liz Schultheis | 3 | Trumpeter swans are the biggest native waterfowl species in North America. At one time they were found across North America, but by 1935 there were only 69 known individuals in the continental U.S.! In the 1980s, many biologists came together to create a Trumpeter Swan reintroduction plan. Since then the North American Trumpeter Swan survey has been conducted to measure swan populations and determine whether this species is recovering. |
 | Growing energy: comparing biofuel crop biomass | Kellogg Biological Station LTER & University Wisconsin-Madison GLBRC | Liz Schultheis | 3 | Corn is one of the best crops for producing biomass for fossil fuels, however it is an annual and needs very fertile soil. To grow corn, farmers add a lot of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to their fields. Other crops, like switchgrass, prairie, poplar trees, and Miscanthus grass are perennials and require fewer fertilizers and pesticides to grow. If perennials can produce high levels of biomass with low inputs, perhaps they could produce more biomass than corn under certain low nutrient conditions. |
 | A difficult drought | Kellogg Biological Station LTER & University Wisconsin-Madison GLBRC | Liz Schultheis | 2 | Biofuels are made from plants that are growing today, and are being considered as an alternative to fossil fuels. To become biofuels, plants need to go through a series of chemical and physical processes that transform the sugars into ethanol. Scientists are interested in seeing how yeast’s ability to transform sugar into fuel is affected by environmental conditions in fields, such as temperature and rainfall. They used data from a year with drought and a year with normal rainfall to determine if plants that grew under drought conditions were lower quality for ethanol production. |
 | Fertilizing biofuels may cause release of greenhouse gasses | Kellogg Biological Station LTER & University Wisconsin-Madison GLBRC | Liz Schultheis | 3 | One way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere could be to grow our fuel instead of drilling for it. Unlike fossil fuels that can only release CO2, biofuels remove CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow and photosynthesize, potentially balancing the CO2 released when they are burned for fuel. However, the plants we grow for biofuels don’t necessarily absorb all greenhouse gas that is released during the process of growing them on farms and converting them into fuels. |
 | The ground has gas! | Kellogg Biological Station LTER & University Wisconsin-Madison GLBRC | Liz Schultheis | 3 | Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide are responsible for much of the warming of the global average temperature that is causing climate change. Sometimes soils give off, or emit, these greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, adding to climate change. Currently scientists figuring out what causes differences in how much of each type of greenhouse gas soils emit. |
 | Mowing for monarchs, Part I | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 2 | During the spring and summer months, monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants. Milkweed plays an important role in the monarch butterfly’s life cycle. When milkweed is cut at certain times of the year new shoots grow, which are softer and easier for caterpillars to eat. Scientists set out to see if mowing milkweed plants could help boost struggling monarch populations. |
 | Mowing for monarchs, Part II | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 2 | When the scientists mowed down milkweed plants for their experiment, they changed more than the age of the milkweed plants. They also removed other plant species in the background community. Perhaps the patterns they were seeing were driven not by milkweed age, but by eliminating predators from the patches they mowed. |
 | Invasion Meltdown: will climate change make invasions even worse? | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 3 | Humans are changing the earth in many ways, including adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change, and introducing species around the globe, which can lead to invasive species. Scientists wanted to know, could climate change actually help invasive species? Because invasive species have already survived transport from one habitat to another, they may be species that are better able to handle change, such as temperature changes. |
 | Springing forward | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 1 & 3 | What does climate change mean for flowering plants that rely on temperature cues to determine when it is time to flower? Scientists who study phenology, or the timing if life-history events in plants and animals, predict that with warming temperatures, plants will produce their flowers earlier and earlier each year. |
 | Cheaters in nature – when is a mutualism not a mutualism? | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 4 | Mutualisms are a special type of relationship in nature where two species work together and both benefit. This cooperation should lead to each partner species doing better when the other is around – without their mutualist partner, the species will have a harder time acquiring resources. But what happens when one partner cheats and takes more than it gives? |
 | Fair traders or freeloaders? | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 3 | One example of a mutualism is the relationship between a type of bacteria, rhizobia, and plants like peas, beans, soybeans, and clover. Rhizobia live in bumps on the plant roots, where they trade their nitrogen for sugar from the plants. Rhizobia turn nitrogen from the air into a form that plants can use. Under some conditions, this mutualism could break down, for example, if one of the traded resources is very abundant in the environment. |
 | Turning up the heat | Kellogg Biological Station LTER | Liz Schultheis | 3 | At the Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan, a group of researchers wanted to know how climate warming will affect plant communities. To find out, they created what they call “mini time machines” using open-top chambers. By comparing plant communities grown in these warmed conditionswith chambers, to ambient conditions without the chambers, scientists can see how rising temperatures might impact the plants in the future. |
 | What wakes the squirrels? | Arctic LTER | Amanda Morrison | 2 | Arctic ground squirrels hibernate for roughly eight months - the longest of any mammal in the world! As they hibernate, the snow and frozen permafrost insulate their burrows and protect them from severe cold. Cory was surprised to discover that male and female ground squirrels were emerging from hibernation on different schedules. He wanted to see whether males and females are using different cues and if this could be why they are coming out at different times. |
 | Streams as sensors: Arctic watersheds as indicators of change | Arctic LTER | Amanda Morrison | 3 | As the world warms from climate change, the Alaskan Arctic is heating up. This is causing permafrost, or the frozen underground layer of rock and ice, to melt. When permafrost melts, plant material that has been stored for thousands of years begins to decay, releasing carbon and nitrogen from the system. Ecologists can act like “ecosystem accountants” measuring the balance of material that goes into and out of these systems. |
 | Limit by limit: Nutrients control algal growth in Arctic streams | Arctic LTER | Amanda Morrison | 3 | Aquatic algae, a type of microbe that live in the water, need to take in nutrients from their surroundings for growth. Two important nutrients for algal growth are nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). Climate change may be altering which nutrients are limiting to algae, changing food webs in the ecosystem. |
 | Which tundra plants will win the climate change race? | Arctic LTER | Amanda Morrison | 3 | While you might think of the arctic tundra as a blanket of snow and polar bears, this vast landscape supports a diversity of unique plant and animal species. Climate change is altering the arctic environment. With warmer seasons and fewer days with snow covering the ground, soils are thawing more deeply and becoming more nutrient-rich. With more nutrients available, will some plant species be able to outcompete other species by growing taller and making more leaves than other plant species? |
 | Spiders under the influence | Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER | Bess Caplan & Alan Berkowitz | 2 | People use pharmaceutical drugs, personal care products, and other chemicals on a daily basis. Often, they get washed down our drains and end up in local waterways. Chris knew that many types of spiders live near streams and are exposed to toxins through the prey they eat. Chris wanted to compare effects of the chemicals on spiders in rural and urban environments. By comparing spider webs in these two habitats, they could see how different the webs are and infer how many chemicals are in the waterways. |
 | All washed up? The effect of floods on cutthroat trout | Andrews Forest LTER | Kari O'Connell | 2 | Floods are very common disturbances in streams. If floods happen right after fish breed and eggs hatch, young fish that cannot swim strongly may not survive. Although floods can be dangerous for fish, they are also very important for creating new habitat. Cutthroat trout are a species of fish living in Mack Creek, which experiences occasional floods. Trout breed in the early spring, right at the peak of flooding, so scientists are collecting long-term data on this species. Will floods hurt trout populations or help? |
 | Trees and bushes, home sweet home for warblers | Andrews Forest LTER | Kari O'Connell | 4 | The vast coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest provide surprisingly rich and diverse habitat types for birds. Andrews Forest is a long-term ecological research site where there have been manipulations of timber harvest and forest re-growth. This land use history has large impacts on the bird habitats found in an area. Each year since 2009, scientists have gone out and measured bird populations and habitat types. Two species of warbler, with very different habitat preferences, can give insight into how birds are responding to these disturbances. |
 | What grows when the forest goes? | Andrews Forest LTER | Kari O'Connell | 2 | The H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon is a long-term research site where scientists study how ecosystems respond to disturbances like wildfire. After a major fire in 2023, biology teacher Matt and scientist Joe investigated how native and invasive plants recover from fires of varying severity. Using data from a 2020 fire, they analyzed plant communities to see if invasive species recovered more quickly than native ones. |
 | Benthic buddies | Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems LTER | Katie Gavenus | 2 | Arctic lagoons support a surprisingly wide range of marine organisms! Marine worms, snails, and clams live in the muddy sediment of these lagoons. Having a rich variety of benthic animals in these habitats supports fish, which migrate along the shoreline and eat these animals once the ice has left. Ken, Danny, and Kaylie are interested in learning more about how the extreme seasons of the High Arctic affect the marine life that lives there. |
 | The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part I | Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest | Sarah Garlick & Amey Bailey | 2 | Avian ecologists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest have been monitoring bird populations for over 50 years. The data collected during this time is one of the longest bird studies ever conducted! What can we learn from this long-term data set? Are bird populations remaining stable over time? |
 | The birds of Hubbard Brook, Part II | Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest | Sarah Garlick & Amey Bailey | 3 | Hubbard Brook was heavily logged and disturbed in the early 1900s. When logging ended in 1915, trees began to grow back. The forest then went through secondary succession, which refers to the naturally occurring changes in forest structure that happen as a forest ages after it has been cut or otherwise disturbed. Can these changes in habitat availability, due to succession, explain why the number of birds are declining at Hubbard Brook? Are all bird species responding succession in the same way? |
 | When whale I sea you again? | Palmer Station Antarctica LTER | Janice McDonnell | 4 | People have hunted whales for over 5,000 years for their meat, oil, and blubber. Today, as populations are struggling to recover from whaling, humpback whales are faced with additional challenges due to climate change. Their main food source is krill, which are small crustaceans that live under sea ice. As sea ice disappears, the number of krill is getting lower and lower. Humpback whale population recovery may be limited because their main food source is threatened by ongoing ocean warming. |
 | Lizards, iguanas, and snakes! Oh my! | Central Arizona–Phoenix LTER | Lisa Herrmann | 3 | People have dramatically changed the natural riparian habitat found along rivers and streams. In many urban areas today, these riparian habitats are being rehabilitated with the hope of bringing back native species, such as reptiles. Reptiles, including snakes and lizards, are extremely important to monitor as they play important roles in ecosystems. Are rehabilitation efforts in Phoenix successful at restoring reptile diversity and abundance? |
 | The mystery of Plum Island Marsh | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER & The TIDE Project | David Moon | 3 | Salt marshes are among the most productive coastal ecosystems, and support a diversity of plants and animals. Algae and marsh plants feed many invertebrates, like snails and crabs, which are then eaten by larger fish and birds. In Plum Island, scientists have been fertilizing and studying salt marsh creeks to see how added nutrients affect the system. They noticed that fish populations seemed to be crashing in the fertilized creeks, while the mudflats were covered in mudsnails. Could there be a link? |
 | Urbanization and estuary eutrophication | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 4 | Estuaries are very productive habitats found where freshwater rivers meet the ocean. They are important natural filters for water and protect the coast during storms. A high diversity of plants, fish, shellfish and birds call estuaries home. Estuaries are threatened by eutrophication, or the process by which an ecosystem becomes more productive when excess nutrients are added to the system. Parts of the Plum Island Estuary in MA may be more at risk from eutrophication due to their proximity to urban areas. |
 | Does sea level rise harm saltmarsh sparrows? | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 3 | For the last 100 years, sea levels around the globe have increased dramatically. Salt marshes grow right at sea level and are therefore very sensitive to sea level rise. Saltmarsh sparrows rely completely on salt marshes for feeding and nesting, and therefore their numbers are expected to decline as sea levels rise and they lose nesting sites. Will this threatened bird species decline over time as sea levels rise? |
 | Keeping up with the sea level | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 3 | Salt marshes are very important habitats for many species and protect the coast from erosion. Unfortunately, rising sea levels due to climate change are threatening these important ecosystems. As sea levels rise, the elevation of the marsh soil must rise as well so the plants have ground high enough to keep them above sea level. Basically, it is like a race between the marsh floor and sea level to see who can stay on top! |
 | Is your salt marsh in the zone? | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 3 | Beginning in the 1980s, scientist James began measuring the growth of marsh grasses. He discovered that their growth was higher in some years and lower in others and that there was a long-term trend of growth going up over time. Marsh grasses grow around mean sea level, or the average elevation between high and low tides. Are the grasses responding to mean sea level changing year-to-year, and increasing as our oceans warm and water levels rise due to climate change? |
 | Marsh makeover | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 3 | The muddy soils in salt marshes store a lot of carbon, compared to terrestrial dry soils. This is because they are low in oxygen needed for decomposition. For this reason they play a key role in the carbon cycle and climate change. If humans disturb marshes, reducing plant diversity and biomass, are they also disturbing the marsh's ability to sequester carbon? If a marsh is restored, can the carbon holding capacity also be brought back to previous levels? |
 | Invasive reeds in the salt marsh | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 2 | Phragmites australis is an invasive reed that is taking over saltwater marshes of New England, outcompeting other plants that serve as food and homes for marsh animals. Once Phragmites has invaded, it is sometimes the only plant species left, called a monoculture. Phragmites does best where humans have disturbed a marsh, and scientists were curious why that might be. They thought that perhaps it was caused by changing salinity, or amount of salt in the water, after a marsh is disturbed. |
 | Can a salt marsh recover after restoration? | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 2 | Before restoration began, it was clear the Saratoga Creek salt marsh was in trouble. Invasive Phragmites plants covered large areas of the marsh, crowding out native plants and animals. Human activity was thought to be the culprit – storm drains were dumping freshwater into the marsh, lowering salinity. In 1999 a restoration took place to divert freshwater away from the marsh in an attempt to reduce Phragmites numbers. Did it work? |
 | Make way for mummichogs | Plum Island Ecosystems LTER | David Moon | 4 | Mummichogs are small fish that live in tidal marshes all along the US Atlantic coast. Because they are so widespread and can be found in most streams, they are a valuable tool for scientists looking to compare the health of different marshes. The absence of mummichogs in a salt marsh is a sign that it is highly damaged. Students collected data on mummichog numbers before and after a marsh restoration. Did the restoration successfully bring back mummichogs to the marsh? |
 | Do you feel the urban heat? | Florida Coastal Everglades LTER | Nick Oehm | 3 | Record-breaking temperatures climb higher every year, and Florida is no exception. These extreme temperatures affect organisms of all types, including humans. Irvin wanted to see how much the heat varies across Miami and compare it to the sensor at the airport that is used to issue heat warnings. He focused on sites where people gather outside - bus stops. He also chose sites that varied in shade coverage to see how temperatures fluctuate in different environments. |
 | The case of the collapsing soil | Florida Coastal Everglades LTER | Nick Oehm | 4 | The Everglades are a unique and vital ecosystem threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change. Recently scientists have observed in some areas of the wetland the soils are collapsing. What is causing this strange phenomena? Sea level rise might be stressing microbes, causing carbon to be lost to the atmosphere through increased respiration. |
 | The carbon stored in mangrove soils | Florida Coastal Everglades LTER | Nick Oehm | 2 | Mangroves are globally important for many reasons. They form dense forested wetlands that protect the coast from erosion and provide critical habitat for many animals. Mangrove forests also help in the fight against climate change by storing carbon in their soils. The balance between how much carbon is added to the soils and how much is released might be dependent on a variety of factors, including tree size and amount of disturbance to the site. |
 | Are forests helping in the fight against climate change? | Harvard Forest LTER | Clarisse Hart & Katharine Hinkle | 3 | In the 1990s, scientists began to wonder what role forests were having in the exchange of carbon in and out of the atmosphere. Were forests overall storing carbon (carbon sink), or releasing it (carbon source)? To test this, they built large metal towers that stand taller than the forest trees around them and use sensors to measure the speed, direction, and CO2 concentration of each puff of air that passes by. These long term measurements can tell us whether forests help in the fight against climate change. |
 | A window into a tree’s world | Harvard Forest LTER | Clarisse Hart & Katharine Hinkle | 2 | Scientists are very interested in learning how trees respond to rapidly warming temperatures. Luckily, trees offer us a window into their lives through their growth rings. Growth rings are found within the trunk, beneath the bark. These rings provide a long historical record, which can be used to study how trees respond to climate change. |
 | Love that dirty water | Harvard Forest LTER | Clarisse Hart & Katharine Hinkle | 4 | As green spaces are lost to make room for homes and businesses, there are fewer forests and wetlands to filter our drinking water. A team of scientists used the New England Landscapes Future Explorer to study this challenge for the Merrimack River, an important river for the people of New England. |
 | Fertilizer and fire change microbes in prairie soil | Konza Prairie LTER | Jill Haukos | 4 | Prairies grow where three environmental conditions come together – a variable climate, frequent fires, and large herbivores roaming the landscape. However, prairies are experiencing many changes. For example, people now work to prevent fires, which allows forest species take over. In addition, land previously covered in prairie is now being used for agriculture. How do these changes affect the plants, animals, and microbial communities that inhabit prairies? |
 | Does more rain make healthy bison babies? | Konza Prairie LTER | Jill Haukos | 2 | The North American Bison is an important species for the prairie ecosystem. Bison affect the health of the prairie in many ways, and are also affected by the prairie as well. Each year when calves are born, scientists go out and determine their health by weighing them. This long-term dataset can be used to figure out whether environmental conditions from the previous year affect the health of the calves born in the current year. |
 | Trees and the city | Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area LTER | Meredith Keller | 3 | Trees provide important benefits, such as beauty and shade. The number and types of tree species that are planted in a neighborhood can increase the benefits received from trees in urban areas. Based on her own observations, Adrienne started conversations with her colleagues about differences in urban landscapes. They conducted a study to see how social demographics of neighborhoods may be related to tree species richness and tree cover. |
 | Do urchins flip out in hot water? | Santa Barbara Coastal LTER | Scott Simon | 1 & 3 | Periods of unusual warming in the ocean are called marine heatwaves. During marine heatwaves, water gets 2-3 degrees hotter than normal. That might not sound like much, but for an urchin, it is a lot. The research team decided to test whether marine heat waves could be stressing urchins by looking at a simple behavior that they could easily measure - how long it takes urchins to flip back over. |
 | Can kelp help the plovers? | Santa Barbara Coastal LTER | Scott Simon | 2 | On California beaches, dried kelp, beach hoppers (tiny crustaceans), and birds like snowy plovers form an important food web. High school students Mari and Azra, inspired by UCSB scientist Jenny Dugan’s research, set up experiments to test which types of kelp local beach hoppers preferred to eat. Their classroom project showed that beach hoppers avoided Laminaria but readily fed on other kelp species, helping reveal key pieces of the beach ecosystem that support threatened plovers. |
 | Catching fish with sound | Northeast U.S. Shelf LTER | Annette Brickley | 4 | Climate change is warming our oceans, and scientists like Mei are studying how this affects marine food webs, especially small schooling fish that play a crucial role between predators and prey. As part of a long-term ecological research project in the Northeast U.S., Mei collects data using advanced sound technology (echosounders) to measure fish abundance, along with water temperature and depth. Her work helps build a clearer picture of how ocean ecosystems are changing over time, providing valuable information for fishers and resource managers preparing for the future. |
 | Tiny but mighty: leaf miners take on aspen trees | Bonanza Creek LTER | Elena Sparrow | 3 | Jenifer and Diane wanted to know whether aspen leaf miners are affecting leaves’ ability to do their job - photosynthesis. They suspected that leaf miners on the bottom side of the leaf would be destroying guard cells as they feed, keeping them in the closed position and preventing gas exchange. To understand the effect of the leaf mining damage on the leaves, they measured photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of water vapor in leaves that had mining on the top, bottom, or no mining by caterpillars. |
4.8.16
LTER Data Nuggets: Breathing new life into long-term data
The original blog post can be found on the KBS LTER website here.
Each year the KBS LTER program awards graduate students summer fellowships. Here Elizabeth Schultheis and Melissa Kjevik, now both postdoctoral researchers with Michigan State University, describe the project their summer fellowship supported.
Today it is apparent that students and the public continue to struggle when faced with data and its interpretation. When asked to make sense of data taught in their science classrooms, gathered during classroom inquiry projects, or found in the news, students are unable to connect quantitative information to explanations of the way the world works. Without exposure and practice, a large dataset or complicated graph can seem insurmountable. In collaboration with K-12 teachers, the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) GK-12 program, BEACON, and the LTER, we created Data Nuggets to help students overcome roadblocks when working with and interpreting data.
Data Nuggets are targeted classroom activities focused on developing quantitative skills for K-16 students. They are created from recent and ongoing research, bringing cutting edge science into the classroom and helping scientists share their work with broad audiences. The standard format of each Data Nugget provides background information about a scientist and their research, along with how they became interested in their research questions and system that they study. Each Data Nugget includes a real dataset for students to graph, interpret, and use to construct an explanation.
Scientist Mélanie Banville searching for reptiles in the Central Arizona-Phoenix LTER. Her and Heather Bateman’s Data Nugget, “Lizards, Iguanas, and Snakes! Oh My!”
LTER Data Nuggets
The collaboration between Data Nuggets and the LTER is a mutually beneficial fit. LTER scientists help strengthen the Data Nuggets project by increasing the diversity of data and research available to students. In turn, Data Nuggets provide an avenue for LTER scientists to share their work and findings with a broad audience of students, teachers, and fellow scientists. Sharing research findings with the non-science public is an important part of the science process, yet is often one of the most challenging to achieve. With broader impacts a factor in most grants, finding effective methods of communication and transmission is key. Researchers who create Data Nuggets must dig deep to uncover the core messages of their research and think back to the big question that got them passionate about the research in the first place. Also, by creating a Data Nugget and practicing communicating research to a 6th grader, scientists can rest assured that at their next conference they’ll be better able to discuss their work with collaborators and those outside their field!
Researcher Sam Bond taking Sediment Elevation Table measurements in Plum Island Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research site. For more information on this research, check out Anne Giblin’s Data Nugget, “Keeping Up With the Sea Level”.
Most importantly, a great outcome of using LTER data to create Data Nuggets is that teachers and students will directly benefit from additional resources that highlight the importance of data and science in an authentic context. Activities aiming to improve quantitative skills are more effective if they’re grounded in real world situations that students can relate to. Connecting science to a student’s experiences and local ecosystems makes the content more accessible, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse students. These connections also allow students to envision a place for themselves in science. To assist with place-based learning, each Data Nugget is categorized and searchable by the location where the study occurred, allowing teachers to connect data to their students’ environment. In this way, LTER Data Nuggets have the potential to increase interest and engagement with science and data, in both students and the public.
Robert Buchsbaum, from Mass Audubon, preparing his team for a morning of salt marsh bird surveys. Find out more about his research on the endangered Saltmarsh Sparrow in his Data Nugget, “Does Sea Level Rise Harm Saltmarsh Sparrows?”
Working with LTER Scientists and Educators
This past summer (2015), we received support from the LTER Summer Fellowship program. This support allowed us to continue our work with Data Nuggets, and to strengthen their connection to the vast stores of data available through the LTER, including the KBS site and the other 24 sites in the LTER Network. While the LTER Network has conducted over three decades of amazing research, spanning diverse ecosystems and taxa, LTER education and outreach specialists are still finding creative new ways to share this important research with the public. Data Nuggets can breath new life into long-term
datasets, opening them up to the public and future scientists. These funds were used to support training workshops at the LTER All Scientists Meeting (ASM) in Estes Park, CO in August and at KBS in July. These two workshops supported early and late career scientists (graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and REUs) and many LTER education and outreach specialists looking to broaden the impact of the LTER’s research and improve their communication skills. In addition, at the LTER ASM we participated in a poster session to reach out to those who were unable to attend our workshop. Our outreach efforts strengthened the connection between Data Nuggets and the LTER, and resulted in the creation of nine (and counting!) new Data Nuggets based on LTER research. Additionally, in August, we spoke to the teachers working with the KBS K-12 Partnership, connecting them with the LTER Data Nuggets and the vast pool of LTER data, freely available online.
When reflecting back on this summer, it was so great to work with a diversity of LTER scientists across the network. We enjoyed learning new science stories and are very happy to now include coastal, urban riparian, and other ecosystems in the Data Nuggets collection. Please feel free to contact Melissa or Elizabeth if you would like more information or to get started creating your own Data Nugget! For a list of all the Data Nuggets created by LTER scientists and outreach leaders, click here!
7.15.15
Increase your broader impacts with Data Nuggets! LTER ASM Meeting 2015
Sharing research findings with the non-science public is an important part of the science process, yet is often one of the most challenging to achieve. With broader impacts a factor in most grants, finding effective methods of transmission is key. Data Nuggets, a GK-12 initiative from the Kellogg Biological Station is a practical, high-impact solution to this conundrum. If you need to increase broader impacts for your research and want to further develop your communication skills, come to our hands-on workshop and create a Data Nugget based on your research!
Data Nuggets are targeted classroom activities that emphasize developing quantitative skills for K-16 students. They are created from recent and ongoing research, bringing cutting edge science into the classroom and helping scientists share their work with broad audiences. The standard format of each Data Nugget provides a brief background to a researcher and their study system along with a dataset from their research. Students are challenged to answer a scientific question, using the dataset to support their claim, and are guided through the construction of graphs to facilitate data interpretation.
We are currently seeking to add to our collection of Data Nuggets to showcase science done at LTER sites across the country. See examples of LTER Data Nuggets and learn more about our project by clicking on our LTER tag. During the workshop we will walk you through our templates for experimental and observational data, and help you identify a proper dataset, scientific question, and hypothesis for students of many ages. In order to finish a Data Nugget within the allotted time, participants must come to the workshop with a dataset already selected and analyzed.
- Workshop info can be found here.
- Organizers: Mary Spivey, Elizabeth Schultheis, and Melissa Kjelvik
- Monday, August 31st – Working Group Session II
7.12.26
Turning up the heat
- Teacher Guide
- Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 3
- Grading Rubric
As you step into a warm greenhouse, you can feel how the glass has captured the sun’s heat inside. Now imagine that same warmth spreading across the entire planet due to increased greenhouse gas emissions. Climate scientists predict that by the year 2100, Earth’s average temperature could increase by as much as 3°C because of climate change. That might sound small, but even a few degrees matter a lot.
At the Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan, a group of researchers wanted to know how climate warming will affect plant communities. To find out, they created what they call “mini time machines” using open-top chambers. These chambers are clear, hexagonal-shaped structures that trap heat and make the air inside warmer – just like a greenhouse. The chambers still allow for natural levels of precipitation, air flow, and insects to enter through their open tops. By comparing plant communities grown in these warmed conditionswith chambers, to ambient conditions without the chambers, scientists can see how rising temperatures might impact the plants in the future. Understanding these changes can help us prepare for a future where the climate is different from what we know today.
The scientists working in the open-top chambers were at multiple stages in their careers. Moriah is a graduate student who became fascinated with plants when she first learned how to identify different species. Instead of looking at plants as all one patch of green, she could then notice all the diversity and the different roles they play in an ecosystem. Mark is a lab technician working with Moriah. He is interested in how plants will respond to warmer climates because it gives a glimpse of the world his grandchildren will see.
When Moriah and Mark started, they were joined by a few other scientists: Kara, another graduate student, and Emily, an undergraduate student. The open-top chambers had already been out in the field for five years. The field was growing with a diverse mix of plants common in the area. Together, they observed that plants growing in the warmed conditions inside the chambers seemed to be taller than those growing in the ambient conditions outside the chambers.
To collect some data to back up their observation, the team began with one species, tall goldenrod. This is a wildflower species with a bright yellow flower, and it is one of the most common species at this location. They wanted to see how goldenrod growth differed in warmed and ambient conditions. When temperatures rise, some plants grow faster and taller to compete for sunlight, but this takes a lot of energy. That means plants have less energy for survival, making seeds, or defending against herbivores, like insects. The researchers predicted that goldenrod inside the chambers would be taller, but would also have fewer stems and plants because they were putting their energy into growing tall instead of making more plants.
To test their ideas, the team measured goldenrod height with meter sticks and counted the number of goldenrod stems in each plot, called abundance. Their experiment had 30 plots. Half of the plots had open-top chambers, and half did not. That gave them 15 replicates of each treatment. Each plot is 1 meter x 1 meter.
Featured Scientists: Mark Hammond (he/him), Moriah Young (she/hers), Kara Dobson (she/hers), and Emily Parker (she/hers) from the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research Program
Flesch–Kincaid Reading Grade Level = 9.3
Additional Resources:
- The group of researchers featured in this activity work together at the Kellogg Biological Station, part of Michigan State University. Their lab is called the Spatial and Community Ecology Lab (SpaCE Lab). To learn more about their lab and work, students can visit their website or check out the Scientist Profiles associated with this activity.
- Trevor Grabill produced a woodblock printed piece featuring the open-topped chamber experiment, titled What if it’s beautiful?. Along with the piece, they also produced a Zine that includes testimonials by the artist and scientists.
5.9.26
Tiny but mighty: leaf miners take on aspen trees
- Teacher Guide
- Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 3
- PowerPoint of images
- Grading Rubric
Caterpillars might look small, but can they actually be harmful? Yes, if there are enough of them! Aspen leaf miners are moths as adults, but before that, aspen leaf miner caterpillars are incredible herbivores. In the spring, they lay their eggs on the surface of leaves, and they sink into the outer cell layer. When they hatch, the caterpillars quickly get to work. Using their blade-like mouth parts, they slash through the surface cell layer and drink the contents that are released. They leave a trail of silver, damaged cells in their path.
In recent years, aspen leaf miners have been increasing in numbers in Alaska and Canada. Aspen trees are an important component of the boreal forest, providing nutritious food for wildlife, supporting a diverse ecosystem, and capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere at a high rate. Jenifer and Diane are two plant biologists who want to know if the aspen leaf miners are affecting leaves’ ability to do their job. Trees rely on their leaves to capture light energy for photosynthesis. During this process, cells convert CO2 gas from the atmosphere into sugar. Gases enter and leave through pores called stomata – CO2 comes in, and water vapor leaves.
To avoid excessive water loss, leaves carefully control when the stomata are open. Stomata are surrounded by two sausage-shaped cells, called guard cells. The default position keeps the stomata closed. Different signals can cue the guard cells to open, but if too much water escapes, the stomata will close up again.
In aspen trees, the guard cells are only on the bottom of the leaf. Jenifer and Diane suspected that leaf miners on the bottom side of the leaf would be destroying guard cells as they feed. They thought that if guard cells are no longer able to function properly, they would get stuck in the default closed position. This would limit photosynthesis because they would no longer be able to take in CO2 or let out water vapor.
To test their idea, Jenifer and Diane set up an experiment on the University of Alaska campus in Fairbanks. Jenifer and Diane let leaf miners lay eggs on leaves, like normal. Each caterpillar is so small that it stays on a single leaf side to eat. Jenifer and Diane removed eggs and marked about 10 leaves on each of 14 aspen trees. They randomly assigned each leaf to one of three treatments by removing the leaf miner eggs from either the top, bottom, or both sides of the leaves. To remove eggs from leaves, they wore magnifying headsets, just as a jeweler might wear, and carefully scraped each tiny egg off the leaf using a sharp probe. By doing so, they had leaves that were 1) mined on the bottom surface only, 2) mined on the top surface only, and 3) unmined (control) leaves.
After the leaf miner caterpillars were finished feeding for the season, Jenifer and Diane came back to assess the damage. To understand the effect of the leaf mining damage on the leaves, they measured the photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of water vapor in the different treatments. To do this, they used a special piece of equipment called a portable infrared gas analyzer. The analyzer has two chambers – one that can be clamped onto a single leaf and one that is a control with no leaf. Gas is pumped through both chambers, and the gas concentrations from the leaf and the control are recorded and compared. The difference in CO2 concentration between the chambers is used to calculate the rate that CO2 is taken in by the leaf from photosynthesis. The difference in water vapor is used to measure how easily water vapor is passing out of the leaf through the stomata.
Jenifer and Diane predicted that if the stomata are stuck closed, less CO2 would be taken from the atmosphere and less water vapor would be lost from the stomata. In other words, leaves with leaf miners on the bottom would have lower photosynthesis rates and decreased stomatal conductance of water vapor compared to the other treatments.
Featured scientists: Jenifer Wheeler (she/her) and Diane Wagner (she/her) from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Written with Denise Kind (she/her).
Flesch–Kincaid Reading Grade Level = 9.3
Additional Teacher Resources:
There are short videos with background information on the study of aspen leaf miners in Alaska:
- Aspen Ecology
- The Herbivore: Aspen Leaf Miner
- Leaf Structure and Function
- Measuring Leaf Gas Exchange
A scientific journal article about this research project: https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpz109. Access the pdf here.
An additional educational module on the effects of the aspen leaf miners is available through the AKDatUM website.
The original data file can be found on the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research website, in the Data Catalog. Under Title, search for “leaf miner feeding damage”. There are many additional leaf physiology variables included in the data set.
4.29.26
The chromosome advantage: Lifespan differences across sexes
The activities are as follows:
- Teacher Guide
- Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 3
- Nicole Riddle Scientist Profile
- Jamie Walters Scientist Profile
- Grading Rubric
Many factors affect lifespan, or how long an organism lives. Different species, and individuals within a species, will all live to different ages. Across species, things like body size, rate of metabolism, and genetics can all come into play. For example, larger animals tend to live longer than smaller organisms. Within a species, genetics and environmental conditions, such as being able to find food, the presence of predators, and disease, will also impact survival.
Scientists have also noticed that in many animal species, one sex tends to live longer than the other. Sometimes it is the males, and sometimes it is the females. Why might this be? To better understand aging differences across sexes, a group of scientists decided to work together. Each scientist studies a different species, so by combining their knowledge, they can look for patterns and see if there are consistent factors that are the cause.
Nicole and Jamie are two scientists in this group. Nicole studies fruit flies, while Jamie studies moths and butterflies. Even though fruit flies and moths are both insects, sex is determined differently. In most animals, biological sex is determined by specific chromosomes. These structures are inside cells and carry genetic information. Individuals usually have two sex chromosomes. Whether those two chromosomes are the same or different often determines whether their bodies develop as male or female.
In fruit flies, females have two of the same sex chromosomes (XX), while males have two different sex chromosomes (XY). In moths and butterflies, the pattern is reversed. Males have two of the same sex chromosomes (ZZ), while females have two different ones (ZW).
Nicole and Jamie wondered if having two different sex chromosomes might affect lifespan. When an individual has only one copy of a particular chromosome—like the X in XY males or the Z in ZW females—there is no second copy for the genes on that chromosome. If that single copy contains a harmful mutation or becomes damaged, the organism cannot rely on a second copy to make up for it. On the other hand, individuals with two of the same sex chromosomes (XX or ZZ) have a kind of “genetic backup”. This extra protection might reduce the risk of problems that could lead to an earlier death.
To test their idea about sex chromosomes and lifespan, Nicole and Jamie designed an experiment called a survival assay. A survival assay is a laboratory experiment in which scientists carefully track how long organisms live under controlled conditions. By keeping the environment consistent, scientists can focus on the specific factor they want to study.
Plodia interpunctella female by Pekka Malinen, Luomus is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nicole performed her survival assay with the fruit fly species, Drosophila melanogaster. Jamie worked with a pantry moth species called Plodia interpunctella. Both scientists already raise these species in their labs and carefully document the life cycles and age of each individual.
To set up their assays, Nicole and Jamie chose individuals that had emerged from the pupae stage around the same time. This step was important because they wanted to make sure all individuals had the same starting point. If some individuals had emerged a lot sooner, the results would not be accurate.
Nicole collected 100 female and 100 male fruit flies, and Jamie collected 60 male and 60 female moths. The insects were given plenty of food and kept in good environmental conditions, such as appropriate temperature and humidity. By reducing stress, they could better observe natural lifespan differences between males and females, rather than differences caused by harsh conditions.
Each day, Nicole and Jamie recorded how many males and females were still alive. This careful daily tracking allowed them to see how survival changed over time. The survival assay continued until the last individual had died. By the end of the experiment, Nicole and Jamie had detailed data showing how long males and females lived in each species. These results would help them test whether having two identical sex chromosomes—or two different ones—might influence lifespan.
Featured scientists: Nicole Riddle (she/her) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Jamie Walters (he/him) from the University of Kansas.
Flesch–Kincaid Reading Grade Level = 9.9
Additional Teacher Resources:
- Scientist profiles: Nicole Riddle and Jamie Walters both have scientist profiles to supplement this activity. Have students read more about their research, personal lives, and advice they have as a way to share contemporary scientist role models with students!
- You can learn more about the IISAGE (Integration Initiative: Sex, Aging, Genomics, and Evolution) project here. This initiative is a collaborative effort to learn more about the mechanisms of sex-specific differences in aging and features research with a variety of organisms.
- Visit this page for additional scientist profiles and Data Nuggets featuring IISAGE research.
IISAGE Data Nuggets
Revealing the mechanisms behind sex differences in aging.
In many species across the animal kingdom, one sex ages slower than the other, or has a longer lifespan. This sex-specific aging has significant implications for conservation, agriculture, and human health. However, no unified model exists that reveals how mechanistic and evolutionary processes cause the diverse patterns of sex-specific aging seen in nature.
IISAGE – Integration Initiative: Sex, Aging, Genomics, and Evolution – is a Biology Integration Institute whose goal is to determine how genome architecture, organismal biology, and phenotypic plasticity contribute to sex-specific aging and its evolution.
To learn more about the people behind IISAGE, check out these scientist profiles!
The following Data Nuggets are made from IISAGE research and data.
| Title | Featured Scientists | Content Level | Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Live fast, die young? | Kaitlyn Holden and Anne Bronikowski | 3 | Garter snakes are a common sight across North America, but one small species in Northern California has helped scientists learn a lot about how animals adapt to their environment. Since 1972, scientists have been studying two ecotypes – one that lives in mountain meadows and one by lowland lakes. Scientists wanted to know, have these ecotypes evolved unique life history strategies in response to their environments? |
 | The chromosome advantage | Nicole Riddle and Jamie Walters | 3 | Many factors affect lifespan, or how long an organism lives. Different species, and individuals within a species, will all live to different ages. Across species, things like body size, rate of metabolism, and genetics can all come into play. Scientists wondered if having two different sex chromosomes might affect lifespan. |
10.15.25
Stormy shorelines
The activities are as follows:
- Teacher Guide
- Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 3
- Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 3
- Grading Rubric
Chevak is a village that sits along the Ningliqvak River in Alaska. The area around the village is a flat coastal wetland, a landscape of winding river channels, marshes, and salty lakes. In the Yup’ik language, this low-lying terrain is called maraq. Here, salt-tolerant grasses and sedges thrive in an environment with brackish water, which is saltier than fresh water, but less salty than sea water. These wetlands serve as nesting grounds for waterfowl during the spring and summer months.
Further upland, the higher ground that sits roughly three meters in elevation is called nunapik, meaning tundra. Brackish water does not usually touch these areas. The tundra has many freshwater lakes and supports a different plant community, rich with forbs, shrubs, and lichen. Because it experiences less flooding, more types of plants can live in the upland tundra, providing important resources for food and medicine.
In recent years, coastal flooding has become more common near Chevak. Protective sea ice melts earlier each year. Storm surges and rising sea levels now push brackish water further inland. These flooding events increase erosion, damage property, and alter the delicate balance of wetland and tundra ecosystems.
Ecologists Karen, Kathy, and Josh began studying the plants around Chevak to better understand how flooding affects these ecosystems. To understand how plant communities at high and low elevations respond to flooding, the scientists designed an experiment at Old Chevak, the original village site abandoned decades ago due to flooding.
Working in collaboration with the Chevak community and the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, they established experimental plots to simulate flooding. The flooded plots were created by pumping in seawater to simulate high-tide flooding. This was repeated 3 times during the summer. Karen, Kathy, and Josh also kept control plots where no brackish water was added. The treatments were repeated at both high and low elevation sites. There were 7 replicates at each location.
At the summer’s end the team collected data on plant growth. They measured the biomass, or weight, of all plants in all of the plots. Karen, Kathy, and Josh grouped the plants into 4 groups. Graminoids, which include grasses and sedges, are the dominant plant group of the maraq. They typically grow well in flooded wetland areas. Forbs are broadleaf herbs, like salmonberries, that grow well in the nunapik. Shrubs include species such as blueberries, cranberries, and tundra tea. Like forbs, they also grow well in the nunapik. Lichens are plant-like species that form low crusts along the ground and are only found in the higher elevation sites.
Karen, Kathy, and Josh thought that plants from the low elevation sites would be made up of more salt and flood-tolerant species and would therefore be less harmed by frequent floods. On the other hand, high elevation sites would consist mostly of plant species that are not salt or flood-tolerant and would not do well during floods.
Featured scientists: Karen Beard (she/her) of Utah State University, Kathy Kelsey (she/her) of the University of Colorado Denver and Joshua Leffler (he/him) of South Dakota State University. Written by: Andrea Pokrzywinski (she/her).
Flesch–Kincaid Reading Grade Level = 8.9
Additional Resources:
This activity pairs with another Data Nugget, “Salmonberries in our future”, which features this same collaboration, but focuses on one culturally significant type of Arctic plant, salmonberries.
Additional video resources and lesson extensions can be found at the project website “Working Together”, including the following:
- “Voices from the Land” introduces the collaboration between scientists and Yup’ik community members. They are working together to respect and care for the land. This narrative is told by the students from Bethel and Chevak Alaska.
- “Mapping Merbok” describes the questions scientists are researching to document how increased flooding, such as that from Typhoon Merbok, will drive landscape changes.
- “Warming and Flooding on the Tundra” describes the research scientists are conducting to measure the impact of both warming and flooding on plant communities.
8.27.25
Can kelp help the plovers?
The activities are as follows:
- Teacher Guide
- Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 2
- Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 2
- Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 2
- Grading Rubric
It’s a beach day! You’re walking through the sand on a southern California beach, looking for a place to put your things. You notice there are clumps of dried-up seaweed everywhere. As you brush aside some of these clumps to lay out your towel, a shrimp-like bug jumps out at you and bounces off your hand! With smelly dried seaweed, small birds skittering across the sand, and hopping bugs, you wonder, is this beach healthy? Yes! These are all parts of a thriving food web.
Beaches are home to many important species that each play a role in the ecosystem. On the Pacific Coast of California, the dried-up seaweed is typically made up of several species of kelp. Kelp captures the sun’s energy through photosynthesis. Beach hoppers, the little jumping “bugs”, are actually small crustaceans
that feed on the kelp. In turn, these beach hoppers are the main food source for birds.
Snowy plovers are a type of bird that loves to eat beach hoppers. This shorebird species is threatened in California due to habitat loss. The sandy beaches where the plovers live and nest are also places where people like to walk and play. Scientists want to better understand what makes up the base of the food web that supports plovers to help their populations recover.
High school seniors, Mari and Azra, visited beaches in Lompoc, a coastal city in California, many times with their science classes. They wanted to learn more about the sandy beach ecosystem, so they read an article from a local research group at the University of California-Santa Barbara. On one of their field trips, they learned about a scientist named Jenny Dugan. Jenny and members of her lab study the beach hoppers’ important role in the sandy beach ecosystem. The Dugan lab had done a series of experiments to see what types of kelp beach hoppers liked to eat.
Mari and Azra wanted to set up a similar experiment to see if the beach hoppers in the Lompoc area preferred the same species of kelp. Their teacher, Ms. Moore, collected beach hoppers, sand, and kelp on her way to school one day. Mari and Azra set up ten plastic containers by measuring an equal amount of damp sand and punching holes in the lids. Then they tried to put 10 beach hoppers into the container. But it was hard to know the exact number until the very end of the experiment because some would hop out before the lid was on! At the end of the study, the number ranged from 8-15 beach hoppers in each container. Finally, Mari and Azra weighed out 15.0 grams of kelp and put it on top of the sand in the containers. They put one type of kelp in each container. Four containers had feather boa kelp, Egregia, four containers had giant kelp, Macrocystis, and two containers had Laminaria, another type of kelp. Mari and Azra also set up controls for each type of kelp with sand and kelp, but no beach hoppers. This container would tell them how much kelp weight was lost to water evaporation over the 3 days of the experiment, and not due to being eaten.
Trial 1: Mari and Azra placed the containers outside in a shady spot for three days. On the third morning, they opened up the containers to weigh the kelp that remained. Before weighing the kelp, they rinsed it to remove excess sand and dried it gently to remove excess water. Finally, they counted the beach hoppers that were in the container.
Trial 2: After reviewing their results from this experiment, Mari and Azra realized the beach hoppers did not like Laminaria at all. They decided to repeat the experiment using kelp and beach hoppers from a different beach, and did not include Laminaria as a food source.
Featured scientists: Mari and Azra from Lompoc High School, California. Jenny Dugan from the University of California-Santa Barbara. Written by: Melissa Moore from Lompoc High School.
