
Bioenergy Grasslands
We examine how management of bioenergy crops (e.g. annual harvesting, fertilization, cover cropping) affects beneficial insects such as pollinators.
Lab blog and news for bioenergy grasslands…

Talking Science: 2017 conferences thus far
The Gratton lab has been busy these past couple of months presenting research at regional and national meetings. Here are examples of our 2017 research presentations ranging from bee behavioral responses in apple orchards to nitrogen effects on freshwater algal ...
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Gratton lab presents research at WI Ecology
Jeremy Hemberger, Savannah Bartel, and Anna Cates (Jackson lab) presented their research at WI Ecology's 19th Annual Spring Symposium. This symposium was organized by the graduate students of WI Ecology and consisted of graduate student speakers and poster presentations. The ...
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Hiring field assistants for spring/summer 2016!
The Gratton lab group is hiring field assistants for 2-3 different projects. Please follow application instructions at the bottom of each position summary---if you are interested in all projects, please apply separately to each contact person. 1. Field Assistants: Prairie ...
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Farming on the Margins
Kiley and Jade are headed off to Virginia for the summer! In partnership with GLBRC, Pheasants Forever, and FDC Enterprises, they are examining how different types of pollinator strips planted along margins of switchgrass fields (e.g., high floral diversity (like ...
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2015 Field Season Preview
As summer approaches, here's a preview of the our fieldwork projects... Pollinators in bioenergy landscapes: This project is trying to understand the impact pollinator conservation strips around switchgrass plantings have on native pollinator communities. Fieldwork will be conducted at study sites ...
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Gratton lab heads to ESA in Portland, OR
Recently, the Gratton lab flew out to Portland, OR to attend the 37th Annual Entomological Society of America Meeting. This was a wonderful opportunity to present our research to colleagues, catch up with former collaborators, and make new connections. Several ...
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A year in the life of a field ecologist
Check out this story by Krista Eastman about bioenergy fieldwork in the Gratton lab! Fieldwork Season Nets Insects, Explores Bioenergy Crop Impacts-By Krista Eastman On a lightly overcast morning in early June, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and UW-Madison ...
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Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) public meeting
Last week, members of the Gratton lab attended a Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) public meeting. The WPA project is a multi-scale collaboration between US Fish and Wildlife Service Leopold Management District and UW Madison and the goal of the project ...
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Article on ecosystem service tradeoffs
Check out the nice article that the GLBRC Communications folks put together regarding a recent Gratton Lab paper about ecosystem service tradeoffs that come with working perennial energy crops into agricultural landscapes ...
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Modeling the causes and consequences of land-use change
Two papers, written by Gratton lab members, were recently accepted. Both are modeling papers that use GIS to examine the causes and consequences of land-use change. In Tim and Claudio’s paper, they model tradeoffs of multiple ecosystem services (e.g., carbon ...
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This is what corn looks like
The snow is slowly but surely melting and we are starting to think about the upcoming field season. Here in the Gratton Lab, we do most of our field work in agricultural settings. One crop we work in is corn. ...
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Claudio to present in departmental seminar
Join us on Friday, October 26th to hear Claudio's talk "Sustainable bio-energy landscapes: can we balance our needs for biodiversity and production?" 2 - 3pm, 184 Russell Labs (1630 Linden Drive), as part of the Department of Forest & Wildlife ...
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Getting bioenergy right
Here is a nice article from Grow magazine describing our work on sustainable bioenergy ...
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Biofuel and bobwhites
Read a Columbus Dispatch article featuring Tim's and Claudio's forecasts for how bird diversity might be affected by bioenergy production in the Midwest ...
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Is Bioenergy for the Birds?
Demand for fossil fuels is increasing globally. The United States is pursuing an energy policy that aims to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by expanding renewable energy sources. One important part of this effort is the use of bioenergy ...
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