Home | News

July 1, 2007

• $125 million bioenergy initiative powered by Midwest ag industry, MSU research
• Dale Selected for Top USDA Honor
• MAES Researcher Named University Distinguished Professor
• A Predator Affects Prey Species More Through Scaring than Eating
• MAES Scientist Developing Hybrid Superturf
• MSU Animal Agriculture Initiative Awards Research Dollars for 2007-08
• MAES Field Days and Special Events

MAES News Archive

 

$125 Million Bioenergy Initiative Powered by Midwest Ag Industry, MSU Research

Renewable energy for American industry is at the root of a major Midwest research center funded by the largest federal grant exclusively for research endeavors in Michigan State University's history.

MSU will partner with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in establishing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), one of three new DOE bioenergy research centers (BRC). The center, based in Madison, will be funded with $125 million over 5 years. MSU will use approximately $50 million for basic science research aimed at solving some of the most complex problems in converting natural materials to energy.

Ken Keegstra, MSU university distinguished professor of plant biology, and biochemistry and molecular biology, will be the executive director of the center, splitting his time between East Lansing and Madison. Keegstra and Tim Donohue, UW-Madison professor of bacteriology, led the initiative to bring the center to the Great Lakes region.

Some 100 jobs are expected to be created in Michigan, including positions for MSU faculty members, postgraduate students, technicians and support staff members.

"This is a proud day for MSU and the state of Michigan -- and a dramatic step toward an economy powered by strategic partnerships among states, research universities and industry," said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. "MSU's Office of Biobased Technologies and our preeminent scientists are dedicated to addressing problems and opportunities of today but, more importantly, of the future."

"This is a great partnership that uses Michigan State's comprehensive and powerful plant sciences to shape a green future in renewable resources," said Steve Pueppke, director of the MSU Office of Biobased Technologies. Pueppke is also director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. "This matches some of the world's best plant science with industry needs. The work will create momentum; these activities bring on more activities. This is how things start to happen."

The three DOE BRCs were announced on June 26 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. They are established and operated to accelerate basic research on the development of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. The other two DOE BRCs are in Oak Ridge, Tenn., led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and near Berkeley, Calif., led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"These centers will provide the transformational science needed for bioenergy breakthroughs to advance President Bush's goal of making cellulosic ethanol cost competitive with gasoline by 2012 and assist in reducing America's gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years," said Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman. "The collaborations of academic, corporate and national laboratory researchers represented by these centers are truly impressive, and I am very encouraged by the potential they hold for advancing America's energy security."

Research at the DOE GLBRC will be done by a dream team of scientists from Wisconsin; Michigan State; Lucigen, a Madison-area biotechnology company; the Pacific Northwest and Oak Ridge national laboratories; and the University of Florida, among others.

The research will focus on breeding new varieties of bioenergy plants, developing new processing techniques and agents from microbes for breaking down cellulose, improving the microbial and chemical processes that convert biomass to energy products, providing an environmental and economic framework for sustaining the biomass-to-fuel pipeline and integrating new technologies -- including genomics and new computational methods -- into bioenergy research.

Keegstra's expertise is in plant cell wall biology, a crucial area in making biofuels. He has extensive management and scientific experience, having served for 14 years as director of the DOE-funded Plant Research Laboratory at MSU and 15 years as a faculty member in the botany department at UW-Madison. He said the two universities' complementary expertise -- from agricultural sciences to microbiology to chemical engineering -- combined with knowledge from the rest of the partners forms a team designed for progress and action.

"If we're going to start using plants in significant ways beyond food, there are a lot of issues that come into play that we need to figure out," Keegstra said. "Sustainability, competition for food, environmental issues -- our universities already have a head start in studying these from many angles. There is tremendous compatibility between UW-Madison and MSU, and we have assembled with others a strong and dynamic partnership."

Wisconsin, Michigan and the Great Lakes region will be a hub for research efforts aimed at clearing the technological bottlenecks that prevent plant biomass from being used efficiently as a source of energy.

"In the past 100 years, we've gone through a significant fraction of the oil it took hundreds of millions of years to create," Donohue said, "so we have to come up with some new strategies."

Michigan State brings:

"This announcement combines two of the most critical components of our plan to revitalize the state's economy -- a thriving higher education community and growth in alternative energy research and development right here in Michigan," said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. "This new partnership puts Michigan State University at the forefront of making the nation independent of foreign oil while creating jobs and encouraging further alternative energy investment in Michigan."

"This center is a great achievement for MSU researchers," said Ian Gray, vice president for research and graduate studies. "Linking the wealth of talent at MSU in plant-related activities with the strengths of researchers at the University of Wisconsin is a dream partnership. With the additional support from the other universities and institutions involved in the project, this center will have a significant impact on agriculture and manufacturing throughout the Great Lakes region and beyond."

"This initiative aligns vast natural resources, agricultural might and MSU's strong tradition of integrating science, university expertise and industry," said MSU Provost Kim Wilcox. "The university's long and productive tradition in plant and agricultural sciences is embodied in the intellectual capital our faculty members bring to this partnership."

See the GLBRC special report.

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Dale Selected for Top USDA Honor

Bruce Dale, MAES chemical engineering and materials science researcher and associate director of the MSU Office of Biobased Technologies, has been selected as the 2007 Sterling B. Hendricks Memorial Lecturer. The lectureship was established in 1981 by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the primary research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to honor Hendricks and recognize scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the chemical science of agriculture. Hendricks is most frequently remembered for discovering phytochrome, the light-activated molecule that regulates many plant processes.

An international biofuel expert, Dale has studied cellulosic ethanol technology for more than 30 years and invented a patented pretreatment for biomass conversion called ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX). His work also uses life cycle analysis tools, including agricultural data and computer modeling, to study the sustainability of producing biofuels.

"I feel doubly honored to be recognized for this lectureship in agriculture," Dale said. "As a chemical engineer, to be recognized outside of my field is a great honor."

The topic of Dale's lecture will be "Why cellulosic ethanol is nearer than you think: creating the biofuels future." Growing demand for petroleum alternatives and rapidly improving technologies will make large-scale cellulosic ethanol production a reality much sooner than most people may realize, Dale said. His lecture will explore some of the consequences of large-scale biofuel production on sustainability and the opportunity to revitalize rural areas across the United States and the world.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the American Chemical Society divisions of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and Agrochemicals and will be presented at the American Chemical Society national meeting in August.

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MAES Researcher Named University Distinguished Professor

William Taylor, chairperson of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, was one of 10 professors named university distinguished professors in recognition of their achievements in the classroom, laboratory and community.

The designations, recommended by President Lou Anna K. Simon, were approved by the MSU Board of Trustees at the group's June meeting.

This is among the highest honors that the university can bestow on a faculty member. Those selected for the title have been recognized nationally and internationally for the importance of their teaching, research and public service achievements.

Taylor is an internationally renowned expert in fisheries ecology, population dynamics and Great Lakes fisheries management. He also serves as associate director of the Michigan Sea Grant College Program and chairperson of the board of directors of the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center. He also serves on the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Michigan Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinating Council.

Taylor has a keen interest in environmental policy and management at all levels, from local to global. He and his students are evaluating the impacts of globalization and water security on fisheries and aquatic resources.

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Taylor received his bachelor's degree from Hartwick College in 1972, his master's degree from West Virginia University in 1975 and his doctorate from Arizona State University in 1978.

University distinguished professors receive, in addition to their salaries, stipends of $5,000 per year for 5 years to support professional activities.

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A Predator Affects Prey Species More Through Scaring than Eating

In the animal world, sometimes getting eaten by a predator is only the tip of the iceberg among the predator's effects on a species.

Research by MAES fisheries and wildlife scientist Scott Peacor shows that it is often the nonlethal effects that a predator has on its prey are more dangerous, at least in the long run, to a species than the lethal effects are. Peacor's work, in collaboration with lead author Kevin Pangle, fisheries and wildlife doctoral candidate, and a Canadian colleague, was published in the journal Ecology. The research found that, when a predator species invades another species' territory, the prey perceive the threat of the predator and move to another, often less hospitable environment, something that can have long-term negative effects on that species.

Working in Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, Peacor and his colleagues studied what happened when an invasive predator species -- the spiny water flea (Bythotrephes) -- invaded territory inhabited by a smaller zooplankton prey species -- Daphnia.

Because the spiny water flea is a visual predator, the Daphnia retreated to deeper, darker waters to avoid being eaten, but these waters were also colder and less conducive to reproduction. Laboratory experiments by Peacor and colleagues have shown that "scared" Daphnia know when to retreat because they can smell the predators.

"In this case, the Daphnia that didn't get eaten were hiding down in the cold water," Peacor said. "The fact that the spiny water flea has actually eaten some Daphnia might be inconsequential compared to the fact that it's affected the behavior of all the others. This induced migration reduces predation risk but also can reduce birth rate because of exposure to cooler temperatures."

Peacor's research found that these so-called nonlethal effects of the spiny water flea on the Daphnia were comparable to or, in some cases, as much as 10 times greater than the effects due to the predators eating the prey.

"So if you were to look at what the spiny water flea was eating to gauge its effect on the ecological community," Peacor said, "you would arrive at a very incomplete and inaccurate picture."

These findings could affect the management of the Great Lakes food webs because they present an important mechanism by which the spiny water flea affects the abundance and location of daphnia. Daphnia are an important food source of larval fish and, therefore, play a key role in the food web and are important to Great Lakes fisheries.

Peacor's work was supported by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.

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MAES Scientist Developing Hybrid Superturf

In the future, people who care for and enjoy using golf courses, sports fields and parks may be able to worry less about how cold weather and drought affect the grass at their favorite recreational areas. With the development of new turfgrass hybrids by Suleiman Bughrara, MAES turfgrass breeder, the turfgrass industry may grow greener and stronger than ever before.

Since starting at MSU in 1999, Bughrara has blazed new trails; or, in some cases, frozen them. Bughrara completed a comprehensive snow mold study of more than 4,000 cloned varieties of creeping bentgrass by simulating winter for each plant. Twenty bentgrass varieties showed significant resistance to snow mold, one of the most detrimental turf diseases. A follow-up study found six of the 20 snow mold-resistant clones also showed resistance to dollar spot, another troubling turf disease.

"Bentgrass has all the right characteristics of great turf but shows susceptibility to dollar spot and snow mold," Bughrara said. "We will continue our work to examine ways of crossbreeding aesthetically pleasing varieties, such as colonial bentgrass, to maximize disease resistance."

Bughrara's research also focuses on ryegrass and fescue. Working to understand the genetics of drought tolerance, Bughrara is integrating Atlas fescue genes (from semiarid regions of Morocco) into the perennial ryegrass genome. The hybrids have shown high drought tolerance in greenhouse research. Field evaluations and molecular mapping are under way.

"This is exciting work," Bughrara said. "We are the only university in the United States doing this type of genetic work to improve cold and drought tolerance and disease resistance in turfgrass breeding."

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MSU Animal Agriculture Initiative Awards Research Dollars for 2007-08

Eight MSU animal agriculture research and Extension projects will receive $350,000 in funding approved by the Animal Agriculture Initiative Coalition (AIC) for 2007-08. From the emerging bioeconomy to traditional dairy cow fertility research, the AIC-funded projects address the needs of Michigan's livestock industry and encourage open dialogue between producers and consumers.

Each year, state funding supports projects that are part of the Revitalization of Animal Agriculture in Michigan Initiative. The initiative, commonly referred to as the Animal Agriculture Initiative (AAI) and housed at MSU, is Michigan's animal agriculture research, teaching and Extension initiative.

The eight projects were selected from approximately 25 proposals submitted to the AIC addressing challenges identified by livestock industry leaders as affecting livestock producers and their industries in the state. Proposals were ranked on the basis of the issues identified as high priority by industry leaders, MSU Extension area of expertise teams and the AIC.

"I am enthusiastic about this year's projects because we were able to address issues in line with farmer needs and consumer awareness," said Mike Orth, chairperson of the coalition and associate chairperson of the MSU Department of Animal Science. "The new projects reach into the industry and out into communities to strengthen Michigan's economy by investing in the livestock industry."

The AIC is made up of representatives from the MSU departments of Agricultural Economics, Animal Science, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Crop and Soil Sciences, Food Science and Human Nutrition, and Large Animal Clinical Sciences, the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station and MSU Extension. It provides program direction to applied research and Extension projects involving Michigan's beef, dairy, equine, poultry, sheep and swine industries, and works with various industry advisory committees to help establish research priorities for improving Michigan animal agriculture.

In addition to annual research project funding, the AAI invests in four industry-specific quarterly newsletters: Cattle Call, Michigan Dairy Review, Michigan Pork Quarterly and the MSU Equine Program Newsletter. More than 12,000 subscribers receive the AAI-funded newsletters, which feature research articles and opportunities for continued education through MSU Extension.

More than 175 research projects have been funded since the AAI was established in 1996. Projects funded for 2007-08 are:

To learn more about Michigan's animal agriculture initiative at MSU, visit www.animalag.msu.edu.

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MAES Field Days and Special Events

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