@article {6087, title = {Embracing the dynamic nature of soil structure: A paradigm illuminating the role of life in critical zones of the Anthropocene}, journal = {Earth-Science Reviews}, volume = {225}, year = {2022}, pages = {103873}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, issn = {00128252}, doi = {10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103873}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0012825221003743}, author = {Sullivan, P.L. and Billings, S.A. and Hirmas, D. and Li, L. and Zhang, X. and Ziegler, S. and Murenbeeld, K. and Ajami, H. and Guthrie, A. and Singha, K. and Gimenez, D. and Duro, A. and Moreno, V. and Flores, A. and Cueva, A. and Koop, A. and Aronson, E.L. and Barnard, H.R. and Banwart, S.A. and Keen, R.M. and Nemes, A. and Nikolaidis, N.P. and Nippert, J.B. and Richter, D. and Robinson, D.A. and Sadayappan, K. and de Souza, L.F.T. and Unruh, M. and Wen, H.} } @article {6069, title = {Precipitation, not land use, primarily determines the composition of both plant and phyllosphere fungal communities}, journal = {Frontiers in Fungal Biology}, volume = {3}, year = {2022}, pages = {805225}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.3389/ffunb.2022.805225}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffunb.2022.805225/full}, author = {Dea, Hannah I. and Urban, Abigail and Kazarina, Anna and Houseman, Gregory R. and Thomas, Samantha G. and Loecke, Terry and Greer, Mitchell J. and Platt, Thomas G. and Lee, Sonny and A. Jumpponen} } @article {5989, title = {RivFishTIME: A global database of fish time-series to study global change ecology in riverine systems}, journal = {Global Ecology and Biogeography}, volume = {30}, year = {2021}, pages = {38 - 50}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/geb.13210}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/geb.13210}, author = {Comte, Lise and Carvajal, Juan and Tedesco, Pablo A. and Giam, Xingli and Brose, Ulrich and Er{\H o}s, Tibor and Filipe, Ana F. and Fortin, Marie-Jos{\'e}e and Irving, Katie and Jacquet, Claire and Larsen, Stefano and Sharma, Sapna and Ruhi, Albert and Becker, Fernando G. and Casatti, Lilian and Castaldelli, Giuseppe and Dala-Corte, Renato B. and Davenport, Stephen R. and Franssen, Nathan R. and Garc{\'\i}a-Berthou, Emili and Gavioli, Anna and K. B. Gido and Jimenez-Segura, Luz and Leit{\~a}o, Rafael P. and McLarney, Bill and Meador, Jason and Milardi, Marco and Moffatt, David B. and Occhi, Thiago V. T. and Pompeu, Paulo S. and Propst, David L. and Pyron, Mark and Salvador, Gilberto N. and Stefferud, Jerome A. and Sutela, Tapio and Taylor, Christopher and Terui, Akira and Urabe, Hirokazu and Vehanen, Teppo and Vitule, Jean R. S. and Zeni, Jaquelini O. and Olden, Julian D.}, editor = {Bahn, Volker} } @article {KNZ002014, title = {Rainfall-manipulation experiments as simulated by terrestrial biosphere models: where do we stand?}, journal = {Global Change Biology}, volume = {26}, year = {2020}, pages = {3336{\textendash}3355}, abstract = {

Changes in rainfall amounts and patterns have been observed and are expected to continue in the near future with potentially significant ecological and societal consequences. Modelling vegetation responses to changes in rainfall is thus crucial to project water and carbon cycles in the future. In this study, we present the results of a new model-data intercomparison project, where we tested the ability of ten terrestrial biosphere models to reproduce observed sensitivity of ecosystem productivity to rainfall changes at ten sites across the globe, in nine of which, rainfall exclusion and/or irrigation experiments had been performed.

The key results are:
(a) Inter-model variation is generally large and model agreement varies with time scales. In severely water limited sites, models only agree on the interannual variability of evapotranspiration and to a smaller extent gross primary productivity. In more mesic sites model agreement for both water and carbon fluxes is typically higher on fine (daily-monthly) time scales and reduces on longer (seasonal-annual) scales.
(b) Models on average overestimate the relationship between ecosystem productivity and mean rainfall amounts across sites (in space) and have a low capacity in reproducing the temporal (interannual) sensitivity of vegetation productivity to annual rainfall at a given site, even though observation uncertainty is comparable to inter-model variability.
(c) Most models reproduced the sign of the observed patterns in productivity changes in rainfall manipulation experiments but had a low capacity in reproducing the observed magnitude of productivity changes. Models better reproduced the observed productivity responses due to rainfall exclusion than addition.
(d) All models attribute ecosystem productivity changes to the intensity of vegetation stress and peak leaf area, whereas the impact of the change in growing season length is negligible. The relative contribution of the peak leaf area and vegetation stress intensity was highly variable among models.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/gcb.15024}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.15024}, author = {Paschalis, Athanasios and Fatichi, Simone and Zscheischler, Jakob and Ciais, Philippe and Michael Bahn and Lena R. Boysen and Chang, Jinfeng and De Kauwe, Martin and Estiarte, Marc and Goll, Daniel and Hanson, Paul J. and Harper, Anna B. and Hou, Enqing and Kigel, Jaime and Alan K. Knapp and Larsen, Klaus Steenberg and Li, Wei and Lienert, Sebastian and Luo, Yiqi and Meir, Patrick and Nabel, Julia E.M.S. and Ogaya, Rom{\`a} and Parolari, Anthony J and Peng, Changhui and Pe{\~n}uelas, Josep and Pongratz, Julia and Rambal, Serge and Schmidt, Inger Kappel and Shi, Hao and Sternberg, Marcelo and Tian, Hanqin and Tschumi, Elisabeth and Ukkola, Anna and Vicca, Sara and Viovy, Nicolas and Wang, -Ping and Wang, Zhuonan and Williams, Karina and Wu, Donghai and Zhu, Qiuan} } @article {KNZ001930, title = {Fire, grazing and climate shape plant{\textendash}grasshopper interactions in a tallgrass prairie}, journal = {Functional Ecology}, volume = {33}, year = {2019}, pages = {735 - 745}, abstract = {

1. Species interactions are integral to ecological community function, and the \ \  \  structure of species interactions has repercussions for the consequences of species extinctions. Few studies\  have examined the role of environmental factors in controlling species interaction networks across time.
2. We examined variation in plant\–grasshopper network structural properties in response to three major grassland drivers: periodic fire, ungulate grazing and climate.
3. We sequenced a plant barcoding gene from extracted grasshopper gut contents to characterize diets of 26 grasshopper species. Resulting grasshopper species\’ diets were combined with long-term plant and grasshopper surveys to assemble plant\–grasshopper networks across 13\–19 years for six watersheds subjected to varying fire and grazing treatments.
4. Network modularity, generality and predicted grasshopper community robustness to plant species loss all increased in grazed watersheds. Temperature decreased predicted grasshopper community robustness to plant species loss.
5. Grasshopper communities were found to be vulnerable to climatic warming due to host plant loss. However, intermediate disturbance from ungulate grazers may maintain grasshopper diversity and buffer community robustness to species loss. Our results suggest that climate and disturbance shape the structure of ecological interaction networks and thus have many indirect effects on species persistence though direct effects on interaction partners.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/1365-2435.13272}, url = {https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2435.13272}, author = {Welti, Ellen A. R. and Fan, Q. and Tetreault, H.M. and Ungerer, M.C. and John M. Blair and Anthony Joern} } @article {KNZ001933, title = {Global patterns and drivers of ecosystem functioning in rivers and riparian zones}, journal = {Science Advances}, volume = {5}, year = {2019}, pages = {eaav0486}, abstract = {

River ecosystems receive and process vast quantities of terrestrial organic carbon, the fate of which depends strongly on microbial activity. Variation in and controls of processing rates, however, are poorly characterized at the global scale. In response, we used a peer-sourced research network and a highly standardized carbon processing assay to conduct a global-scale field experiment in greater than 1000 river and riparian sites. We found that Earth\’s biomes have distinct carbon processing signatures. Slow processing is evident across latitudes, whereas rapid rates are restricted to lower latitudes. Both the mean rate and variability decline with latitude, suggesting temperature constraints toward the poles and greater roles for other environmental drivers (e.g., nutrient loading) toward the equator. These results and data set the stage for unprecedented \“next-generation biomonitoring\” by establishing baselines to help quantify environmental impacts to the functioning of ecosystems at a global scale.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aav0486}, url = {http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaav0486}, author = {Tiegs, Scott D. and Costello, David M. and Isken, Mark W. and Woodward, Guy and McIntyre, Peter B. and Gessner, Mark O. and Chauvet, Eric and Griffiths, Natalie A. and Flecker, Alex S. and Acu{\~n}a, Vicenc and Albari{\~n}o, Ricardo and Allen, Daniel C. and Alonso, Cecilia and Andino, Patricio and Arango, Clay and Aroviita, Jukka and Barbosa, Marcus V. M. and Barmuta, Leon A. and Baxter, Colden V. and Bell, Thomas D. C. and Bellinger, Brent and Boyero, Luz and Brown, Lee E. and Bruder, Andreas and Bruesewitz, Denise A. and Burdon, Francis J. and Callisto, Marcos and Canhoto, Cristina and Capps, Krista A. and Castillo, Mar{\'\i}a M. and Clapcott, Joanne and Colas, Fanny and Col{\'o}n-Gaud, Checo and Cornut, Julien and Crespo-P{\'e}rez, Ver{\'o}nica and Cross, Wyatt F. and Culp, Joseph M. and Danger, Michael and Dangles, Olivier and de Eyto, Elvira and Derry, Alison M. and Villanueva, {\'\i}az and Douglas, Michael M. and Elosegi, Arturo and Encalada, Andrea C. and Entrekin, Sally and Espinosa, Rodrigo and Ethaiya, Diana and Ferreira, Ver{\'o}nica and Ferriol, Carmen and Flanagan, Kyla M. and Fleituch, Tadeusz and Follstad Shah, Jennifer J. and Frainer Barbosa, Andr{\'e} and Friberg, Nikolai and Frost, Paul C. and Garcia, Erica A. and Garc{\'\i}a Lago, Liliana and Garc{\'\i}a Soto, Pavel Ernesto and Ghate, Sudeep and Giling, Darren P. and Gilmer, Alan and {\c c}alves, Jos{\'e} Francisco and Gonzales, Rosario Karina and Graca, Manuel A. S. and Grace, Mike and Grossart, Hans-Peter and Guerrold, Francois and Gulis, Vlad and Hepp, Luiz U. and Higgins, Scott and Hishi, Takuo and Huddart, Joseph and Hudson, John and Imberger, Samantha and {\~n}iguez-Armijos, Carlos and Iwata, Tomoya and Janetski, David J. and Jennings, Eleanor and Kirkwood, Andrea E. and Koning, Aaron A. and Kosten, Sarian and Kuehn, Kevin A. and Laudon, Hjalmar and Leavitt, Peter R. and Lemes da Silva, Aurea L. and Leroux, Shawn J. and LeRoy, Carri J. and Lisi, Peter J. and MacKenzie, Richard and Marcarelli, Amy M. and Masese, Frank O. and McKie, Brendan G. and Oliveira Medeiros, Adriana and Meissner, Kristian and Mili{\v s}a, Marko and Mishra, Shailendra and Miyake, Yo and Moerke, Ashley and Mombrikotb, Shorok and Mooney, Rob and Moulton, Tim and Muotka, Timo and Negishi, Junjiro N. and Neres-Lima, Vinicius and Nieminen, Mika L. and Nimptsch, Jorge and Ondruch, Jakub and Paavola, Riku and Pardo, Isabel and Patrick, Christopher J. and Peeters, Edwin T. H. M. and Pozo, Jesus and Pringle, Catherine and Prussian, Aaron and Quenta, Estefania and Quesada, Antonio and Reid, Brian and Richardson, John S. and Rigosi, Anna and Rinc{\'o}n, Jos{\'e} and Risnoveanu, Geta and Robinson, Christopher T. and Rodr{\'\i}guez-Gallego, Lorena and Royer, Todd V. and Rusak, James A. and Santamans, Anna C. and Selmeczy, G{\'e}za B. and Simiyu, Gelas and Skuja, Agnija and Smykla, Jerzy and Sridhar, Kandikere R. and Sponseller, Ryan and Stoler, Aaron and Swan, Christopher M. and Szlag, David and Mello, Franco Teixeira-de and Tonkin, Jonathan D. and Uusheimo, Sari and Veach, Allison M. and Vilbaste, Sirje and Vought, Lena B. M. and Wang, Chiao-Ping and Webster, Jackson R. and Wilson, Paul B. and Woelfl, Stefan and Xenopoulos, Marguerite A. and Yates, Adam G. and Yoshimura, Chihiro and Yule, Catherine M. and Zhang, Yixin X. and Zwart, Jacob A.} } @article {KNZ001863, title = {Asymmetric responses of primary productivity to altered precipitation simulated by ecosystem models across three long-term grassland sites}, journal = {Biogeosciences}, volume = {15}, year = {2018}, pages = {3421 - 3437}, abstract = {

Field measurements of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in temperate grasslands suggest that both positive and negative asymmetric responses to changes in precipitation (P) may occur. Under normal range of precipitation variability, wet years typically result in ANPP gains being larger than ANPP declines in dry years (positive asymmetry), whereas increases in ANPP are lower in magnitude in extreme wet years compared to reductions during extreme drought (negative asymmetry). Whether the current generation of ecosystem models with a coupled carbon\–water system in grasslands are capable of simulating these asymmetric ANPP responses is an unresolved question. In this study, we evaluated the simulated responses of temperate grassland primary productivity to scenarios of altered precipitation with 14 ecosystem models at three sites: Shortgrass steppe (SGS), Konza Prairie (KNZ) and Stubai Valley meadow (STU), spanning a rainfall gradient from dry to moist. We found that (1)\ the spatial slopes derived from modeled primary productivity and precipitation across sites were steeper than the temporal slopes obtained from inter-annual variations, which was consistent with empirical data; (2)\ the asymmetry of the responses of modeled primary productivity under normal inter-annual precipitation variability differed among models, and the mean of the model ensemble suggested a negative asymmetry across the three sites, which was contrary to empirical evidence based on filed observations; (3)\ the mean sensitivity of modeled productivity to rainfall suggested greater negative response with reduced precipitation than positive response to an increased precipitation under extreme conditions at the three sites; and (4)\ gross primary productivity (GPP), net primary productivity (NPP), aboveground NPP (ANPP) and belowground NPP (BNPP) all showed concave-down nonlinear responses to altered precipitation in all the models, but with different curvatures and mean values. Our results indicated that most models overestimate the negative drought effects and/or underestimate the positive effects of increased precipitation on primary productivity under normal climate conditions, highlighting the need for improving eco-hydrological processes in those models in the future.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.5194/bg-15-3421-2018}, url = {https://www.biogeosciences.net/15/3421/2018/}, author = {Wu, Donghai and Ciais, Philippe and Viovy, Nicolas and Alan K. Knapp and K.R. Wilcox and Michael Bahn and M.D. Smith and Vicca, Sara and Fatichi, Simone and Zscheischler, Jakob and He, Yue and Li, Xiangyi and Ito, Akihiko and Arneth, Almut and Harper, Anna and Ukkola, Anna and Paschalis, Athanasios and Poulter, Benjamin and Peng, Changhui and Ricciuto, Daniel and Reinthaler, David and Chen, Guangsheng and Tian, Hanqin and Genet, {\'e}l{\`e}ne and Mao, Jiafu and Ingrisch, Johannes and Nabel, Julia E. S. M. and Pongratz, Julia and Lena R. Boysen and Kautz, Markus and Schmitt, Michael and Meir, Patrick and Zhu, Qiuan and R. Hasibeder and Sippel, Sebastian and Dangal, Shree R. S. and Sitch, Stephen and Shi, Xiaoying and Wang, Yingping and Luo, Yiqi and Liu, Yongwen and Piao, Shilong} } @article {KNZ001912, title = {Drought tolerance in ecotypes of big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) relates to above-ground surface area: Results from a common garden experiment}, journal = {Flora}, volume = {246-247}, year = {2018}, pages = {52 - 60}, abstract = {

Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii Vitman) is a dominant tallgrass species that has a wide range in North America with numerous genetically-distinct ecotypes, each adapted to conditions in their native habitat. In an evolutionary context, it was hypothesized that drought adaptation in A. gerardii would relate to plant surface area, where drought-adapted ecotypes were expected to be short with narrow leaves, thin stems, and few leaves per tiller. In the context of individual plants acclimating to reduced rainfall, rainout shelters were hypothesized to cause morphological reductions in surface area of individual plants. Morphological measurements were taken from four genetically-distinct ecotypes of A. gerardii across a precipitation gradient ranging from 500 to 900\ mm rain per year at three common garden sites in Colby, Hays, and Manhattan, Kansas, USA. Evolutionary responses to drier soils in A. gerardii resulted in reduction of evaporative surface area from leaves, as drought-adapted plants had fewer and smaller leaves. The most mesic ecotype of A. gerardii had the highest maximum leaf width, stem diameter, and leaf count across sites. There were few effects of environment on morphology in A. gerardii with reduced rainfall, however, indicating genetics plays a more prominent role than environment to influence morphology. We conclude that increased drought tolerance is related to an evolutionary reduction in evaporative surface area.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1016/j.flora.2018.07.005}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0367253018302469}, author = {Kramer, Diedre L. and Maricle, Keri L. and Hilt, Christina J. and Martin, Nicole M. and Urban, Adam D. and Smart, Cera M. and S.G. Baer and Johnson, Loretta C. and Maricle, Brian R.} } @article {KNZ001906, title = {Evolutionary history of plant hosts and fungal symbionts predicts the strength of mycorrhizal mutualism}, journal = {Communications Biology}, volume = {116}, year = {2018}, abstract = {

Most plants engage in symbioses with mycorrhizal fungi in soils and net consequences for plants vary widely from mutualism to parasitism. However, we lack a synthetic understanding of the evolutionary and ecological forces driving such variation for this or any other nutritional symbiosis. We used meta-analysis across 646 combinations of plants and fungi to show that evolutionary history explains substantially more variation in plant responses to mycorrhizal fungi than the ecological factors included in this study, such as nutrient fertilization and additional microbes. Evolutionary history also has a different influence on outcomes of ectomycorrhizal versus arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses; the former are best explained by the multiple evolutionary origins of ectomycorrhizal lifestyle in plants, while the latter are best explained by recent diversification in plants; both are also explained by evolution of specificity between plants and fungi. These results provide the foundation for a synthetic framework to predict the outcomes of nutritional mutualisms.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1038/s42003-018-0120-9}, url = {http://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-018-0120-9}, author = {Hoeksema, Jason D. and Bever, James D. and Chakraborty, Sounak and Chaudhary, V. Bala and Gardes, Monique and Gehring, Catherine A. and Hart, Miranda M. and Housworth, Elizabeth Ann and Kaonongbua, Wittaya and Klironomos, John N. and Lajeunesse, Marc J. and Meadow, James and Milligan, Brook G. and Piculell, Bridget J. and Pringle, Anne and R{\'u}a, Megan A. and Umbanhowar, James and Viechtbauer, Wolfgang and Wang, Yen-Wen and G.T. Wilson and Zee, Peter C.} } @article {KNZ001528, title = {Genetic variation and mating success in managed American plains bison}, journal = {Journal of Heredity}, volume = {104}, year = {2013}, pages = {182 -191}, abstract = {

The American plains bison (Bison bison) was pushed to the brink of extinction in the late 1800s but has since rebounded. Less than 5\% of animals currently exist in conservation herds that are critical for maintaining genetic variability. Here, we use 25 microsatellite loci to assess genetic diversity and patterns of mating success over a 3-year period in a managed conservation herd at Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas (total number of individuals genotyped = 587). Heterozygosity was comparable to and allelic diversity higher than that in 11 other wild and managed herds for which similar estimates are available. Parentage analyses revealed that males within the oldest age classes (5\–7 years) sired \>90\% of calves over the study period, consistent with a polygynous breeding system. Asymmetries in siring success also were observed within age classes, with the same males enjoying high siring success over multiple seasons. Empirical results of paternity will facilitate future modeling and empirical efforts to determine how demographic factors, population size, and variation in siring success interact to determine the retention (or loss) of genetic diversity in natural and managed herds, thus allowing informed recommendations for management practices and conservation efforts of this symbolic North American species.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1093/jhered/ess095}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/104/2/182/802105}, author = {Ungerer, M.C. and Weitekamp, C.A. and Anthony Joern and Towne, G. and J. M. Briggs} } @article {KNZ001399, title = {Species abundance distributions and richness estimations in fungal metagenomics {\textendash} lessons learned from community ecology}, journal = {Molecular Ecology}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, pages = {275 -285}, abstract = {

Results of diversity and community ecology studies strongly depend on sampling depth. Completely surveyed communities follow log-normal distribution, whereas power law functions best describe incompletely censused communities. It is arguable whether the statistics behind those theories can be applied to voluminous next generation sequencing data in microbiology by treating individual DNA sequences as counts of molecular taxonomic units (MOTUs). This study addresses the suitability of species abundance models in three groups of plant-associated fungal communities \– phyllosphere, ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. We tested the impact of differential treatment of molecular singletons on observed and estimated species richness and species abundance distribution models. The arbuscular mycorrhizal community of 48 MOTUs was exhaustively sampled and followed log-normal distribution. The ectomycorrhizal (153 MOTUs) and phyllosphere (327 MOTUs) communities significantly differed from log-normal distribution. The fungal phyllosphere community in particular was clearly undersampled. This undersampling bias resulted in strong sensitivity to the exclusion of molecular singletons and other rare MOTUs that may represent technical artefacts. The analysis of abundant (core) and rare (satellite) MOTUs clearly identified two species abundance distributions in the phyllosphere data \– a log-normal model for the core group and a log-series model for the satellite group. The prominent log-series distribution of satellite phyllosphere fungi highlighted the ecological significance of an infrequent fungal component in the phyllosphere community.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04948.x}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04948.x}, author = {Unterseher, M. and Dorman, C.F. and A. Jumpponen and Moora, M. and {\"O}pik, M. and Tedersoo, L. and Schnittler, M.} } @article {KNZ001290, title = {Mysterious mycorrhizae? A field trip and classroom experiment to demystify the symbioses formed between plants and fungi}, journal = {American Biology Teacher}, volume = {71}, year = {2009}, pages = {424 -429}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, url = {https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002\&context=ies_facpubs}, author = {Johnson, N.C. and Chaudhary, V.B. and Hoeksema, J.D. and Moore, J.M. and Pringle, A. and Umbanhowar, J.A. and G.T. Wilson} } @phdthesis {KNZ001137, title = {Patterns of plant diversity and their management across South African rangelands}, volume = {PhD Dissertation }, year = {2006}, pages = {1 -245}, school = {University of Cape Town}, type = {Ph.D. Thesis}, address = {Cape Town, South Africa}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, url = {https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/6200}, author = {Uys, R.G.} } @article {KNZ00860, title = {A cross-biome comparison of daily light use efficiency for gross primary production}, journal = {Global Change Biology}, volume = {9}, year = {2003}, pages = {383 -395}, abstract = {Vegetation light use efficiency is a key physiological parameter at the canopy scale, and at the daily time step is a component of remote sensing algorithms for scaling gross primary production (GPP) and net primary production (NPP) over regional to global domains. For the purposes of calibrating and validating the light use efficiency (εg) algorithms, the components of εg{\textendash} absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and ecosystem GPP {\textendash} must be measured in a variety of environments. Micrometeorological and mass flux measurements at eddy covariance flux towers can be used to estimate APAR and GPP, and the emerging network of flux tower sites offers the opportunity to investigate spatial and temporal patterns in εg at the daily time step. In this study, we examined the relationship of daily GPP to APAR, and relationships of εg to climatic variables, at four micrometeorological flux tower sites {\textendash} an agricultural field, a tallgrass prairie, a deciduous forest, and a boreal forest. The relationship of GPP to APAR was close to linear at the tallgrass prairie site but more nearly hyperbolic at the other sites. The sites differed in the mean and range of daily εg, with higher values associated with the agricultural field than the boreal forest. εg decreased with increasing APAR at all sites, a function of mid-day saturation of GPP and higher εg under overcast conditions. εg was generally not well correlated with vapor pressure deficit or maximum daily temperature. At the agricultural site, a εg decline towards the end of the growing season was associated with a decrease in foliar nitrogen concentration. At the tallgrass prairie site, a decline in εg in August was associated with soil drought. These results support inclusion of parameters for cloudiness and the phenological status of the vegetation, as well as use of biome-specific parameterization, in operational εg algorithms.}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ, Primary production}, doi = {10.1046/j.1365-2486.2003.00573.x}, author = {Turner, D.P. and Urbanski, D. and D. Bremer and Wofsy, S.C. and Meyers, T. and Gower, S.T. and Gregory, M.} } @article {KNZ00513, title = {Antimicrobial activity of dogwood fruits (Cornus drummondii) from winter food caches of the eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana )}, journal = {Journal of Chemical Ecology}, volume = {21}, year = {1995}, pages = {419 -425}, abstract = {Post-harvest loss of resources to microbial competitors affects a number of species of animals, and many of them have evolved behaviors that reduce the likelihood of such loss. We previously described the inhibition ofBacillus psychrophilus by dogwood fruits (Cornus drummondii), which can comprise a significant portion of the winter food cache of the eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana). The present study is a further investigation of the ability of dogwood fruits to inhibit growth ofB. psychrophilus. Additionally, we tested the antimicrobial activity of dogwood fruits onEscherichia coli andStaphlococcus aureus. Results of our study indicate that fresh fruits inhibit the growth ofB. psychrophilus andS. aureus but notE. coli. However, fruits taken from woodrat dens after four and six months storage inhibited growth of all three species of bacteria. Further, the strength of inhibition increased over the test period. We suggest the presence of an inhibitor allows woodrats to compete effectively for a valuable and limited food resource.}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ, antimicrobial activity, Bacillus psychrophilus, caching, Cornus drummondii, dogwood fruit, eastern woodrat, Escherichia coli, Neotoma floridana, Staphlococcus aureus}, doi = {10.1007/BF02036739}, author = {Post, D.M. and Urban, J.E.} } @article {KNZ00422, title = {Changes in microbial populations from eastern woodrat caches}, journal = {Southwestern Naturalist}, volume = {38}, year = {1993}, pages = {30 -35}, abstract = {Change in microbial populations on three plant foods commonly stored over winter by eastern woodrats (Neotoma floridana) was assessed. It was expected that dogwood fruits (Cornus drummondii) would be affected by microbes to a greater degree than ash seed (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) or redbud seed (Cercis canadensis). Results revealed a change in microbial populations over time but dogwood fruit was no more liable to microbial infestation than seeds. One bacterial species was found in high number on all three food types while three species were found on only two of the three foods. Microbial populations from all three test items increased from November to January but March populations were not different from November populations. It is suggested that climatic factors help to control microbial populations on cache foods.}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.2307/3671641}, author = {Post, D.M. and Urban, J.E.} } @article {KNZ00341, title = {Cryptosporidium and Giardia in surface waters in and around Manhattan, Kansas}, journal = {Transaction of the Kansas Academy of Science}, volume = {94}, year = {1991}, pages = {101 -106}, abstract = {

Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. are intestinal parasites that can be transmitted through water contaminated by feces. Over a 16 month period, surface waters were examined in Kansas in order to measure local geographic distribution and seasonal fluctuation of oocyst and cyst populations. Cryptosporidium and/or Giardia were found in 86 percent of the locations surveyed

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.2307/3627857}, author = {Todd, C.S. and Phillips, M.S. and Marchin, G.L. and Upton, S.J.} } @article {KNZ0093, title = {Response of bacteria isolated from a pristine prairie stream to concentration and source of soluble organic carbon}, journal = {Applied Environmental Microbiology}, volume = {49}, year = {1985}, pages = {238 -241}, abstract = {

Responses of native aquatic bacteria to source and concentration of dissolved organic carbon was observed by using gradient plates. Dissolved organic carbon of prairie (grasses) or gallery forest (bur oak) origin was used as the carbon source in these observations. Bacteria isolated from sediments in the grassland reaches of a prairie stream showed growth only on grass leachates. Bacteria isolated from the gallery forest reaches of the same stream were able to grow on plates made from either source of leachate. The differing quality, quantity, and rate of supply of these dissolved organic carbon sources should select for variation in the baterial assemblages

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ, carbon, organic}, author = {McArthur, J.V. and Marzolf, G.R. and Urban, J.E.} }