%0 Journal Article %J Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science %D 2017 %T Small mammals in anthropogenic brome fields as compared to native tallgrass prairie in the northern flint hills of kansas %A D.W. Kaufman %A Kaufman, G.A. %K community abundance %K deer mouse %K fire %K prairie vole %K relative abundance %K rodents %K shrews %K Species composition %K Species richness %X

We studied small mammals in planted smooth brome (Bromus inermis) fields on Konza Prairie to assess the small mammal community associated with these frequently occurring anthropogenic grasslands in eastern Kansas. Also, we wanted to understand the impacts of land use changes resulting from this type of anthropogenic change as compared to native habitats. Relative to this latter interest, we compared the small mammal community in brome fields to that found in native tallgrass prairie, also on Konza Prairie, for the same years and seasons during the early to mid-1980s. Small mammals were trapped in brome (n = 2 study sites) and native tallgrass prairie (n = 14) in autumn (6 years), spring (5) and summer (4) during 1981–1986. Overall, 173 and 1893 individuals of rodents and shrews were captured in brome and native prairie, respectively. Across all seasons, community abundance in brome was greater in autumn than in spring and summer. Patterns of community abundance among seasons in brome were not proportionally similar to those found in tallgrass prairie. Although proportions in autumn were similar, the patterns in spring and summer were in contrasting directions; spring was higher in brome and summer was higher in prairie. When all seasons were combined, no effect on community abundance was observed from burning the brome fields. Community abundance in brome was similar on burned and unburned traplines in autumn and spring but not in summer. In summer, greater abundance of small mammals occurred on burned than on unburned research sites. The proportion of small mammals in burned brome fields in the three seasons mirrored the proportions observed on burned sites in native prairie. In contrast, these proportions were not similar for spring and summer in brome and prairie for unburned study sites. Species composition and the numerical dominance of species varied greatly between brome fields and native prairie overall as well as among seasons. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) were numerically dominant in brome fields, whereas deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) were in native prairie. Furthermore, herbivorous rodents were numerically dominant in brome fields, whereas seed-eating omnivores were the predominant species in native prairie. Finally, our study indicates that agricultural land use change can result in temporally and spatially variable small mammal communities that do not mirror those found in native tallgrass prairie.

%B Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science %V 120 %P 157 - 169 %G eng %U http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.1660/062.120.0402 %N 3-4 %M KNZ002024 %R 10.1660/062.120.0402 %0 Journal Article %J Ecology Letters %D 2017 %T Species reordering, not changes in richness, drives long-term dynamics in grassland communities %A Jones, Sydney K. %A Ripplinger, Julie %A Scott. L. Collins %E Coulson, Tim %K Community dynamics %K desert grassland %K desert shrubland %K fire; species reordering %K Species richness %K tallgrass prairie %X

Determining how ecological communities will respond to global environmental change remains a challenging research problem. Recent meta-analyses concluded that most communities are undergoing compositional change despite no net change in local species richness. We explored how species richness and composition of co-occurring plant, grasshopper, breeding bird and small mammal communities in arid and mesic grasslands changed in response to increasing aridity and fire frequency. In the arid system, grassland and shrubland plant and breeding bird communities were undergoing directional change, whereas grasshopper and small mammal communities were stable. In the mesic system, all communities were undergoing directional change regardless of fire frequency. Despite directional change in composition in some communities, species richness of all communities did not change because compositional change resulted more from reordering of species abundances than turnover in species composition. Thus, species reordering, not changes in richness, explains long-term dynamics in these grass and shrub dominated communities.

%B Ecology Letters %V 20 %P 1565 %G eng %U https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.12864 %N 12 %M KNZ001830 %& 1556 %R 10.1111/ele.12864 %0 Journal Article %J Plant Ecology %D 2013 %T Temporal dynamics of plant community regeneration sources during tallgrass prairie restoration %A Willand, J.E. %A S.G. Baer %A D.J. Gibson %A Klopf, R.P. %K chronosequence %K Community assembly %K diversity %K Propagules %K Species richness %X

Ecological restoration aims to augment and steer the composition and contribution of propagules for community regeneration in degraded environments. We quantified patterns in the abundance, richness, and diversity of seed and bud banks across an 11-year chronosequence of restored prairies and in prairie remnants to elucidate the degree to which the germinable seed bank, emerged seedlings, belowground buds, and emerged ramets were related to community regeneration. There were no directional patterns in the abundance, richness, or diversity of the germinable seed bank across the chronosequence. Emerged seedling abundance of sown species decreased during restoration. Richness and diversity of all emerged seedlings and non-sown emerged seedling species decreased across the chronosequence. Conversely, abundance and richness of belowground buds increased with restoration age and belowground bud diversity of sown species increased across the chronosequence. Numbers of emerged ramets also increased across the chronosequence and was driven primarily by the number of graminoid ramets. There were no temporal changes in abundance and richness of sown and non-sown emerged ramets, but diversity of sown emerged ramets increased across the chronosequence. This study demonstrates that after initial seeding, plant community structure in restored prairies increasingly reflects the composition of the bud bank.

%B Plant Ecology %V 214 %P 1169 -1180 %G eng %U https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11258-013-0241-7 %M KNZ001562 %R 10.1007/s11258-013-0241-7 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of the North American Benthological Society %D 2009 %T Thresholds in macroinvertebrate biodiversity and stoichiometry across water-quality gradients in Central Plains (USA) streams %A Evans-White, M.A. %A W. K. Dodds %A Huggins, D.G. %A Baker, D.S. %K bioassessment %K breakpoints %K eutrophication %K nutrient criteria %K Species richness %K water quality %X

N and P often limit primary and secondary production in ecosystems, but they also can cause eutrophication and negatively influence sensitive species above a certain level or threshold point. Aquatic biodiversity can have negative threshold relationships with water-quality variables at large scales, but the specific mechanism(s) driving these threshold relationships are not well established. We hypothesized that resource quality (i.e., C:P) might partly drive primary consumer (grazer and detritivore) richness thresholds by altering competitive interactions among species with differing resource demands, but might have less influence on predator richness. We estimated total N (TN), total P (TP), and turbidity thresholds for macroinvertebrate richness across trophic levels and feeding groups in Central Plains (USA) streams. We also determined if mean taxon body C:P of groups with diversity losses were negatively related to TP, a pattern that would suggest that eutrophic communities were dominated by a few species with high dietary P demands. Primary consumers were more sensitive to TN and TP (threshold mean  =  1.0 mg N/L and 0.06 mg P/L) than secondary consumers (threshold mean  =  0.09 mg P/L), a result supporting the resource quality hypothesis. Turbidity reduced richness regardless of feeding mode (threshold mean  =  4.7 NTU), a result suggesting that turbidity and nutrient thresholds were driven by different factors. The TP-richness threshold could be driven partially by changes in food quality because the mean body C:P of shredding and collector-gathering taxa declined as TP increased (threshold mean  =  0.07 and 0.75 mg P/L, respectively). Mean scraper C:P was not related to TP, a result indicating other factors might be responsible for the scraper richness threshold. Our results suggest that changes in resource quality could contribute to large-scale losses in biodiversity in nutrient-enriched lotic ecosystems. Within shredder and collector-gatherer macroinvertebrate feeding groups, P-rich food might allow faster growing taxa with high body P demands to out-compete slower growing taxa adapted to lower quality food resources. This pattern suggests that biotic integrity is directly linked to nutrients in streams and that toxicity, low dissolved O2, and increased turbidity might not be the only mechanisms leading to reductions in diversity as nutrient concentrations increase.

%B Journal of the North American Benthological Society %V 28 %P 855 -868 %G eng %U https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1899/08-113.1 %M KNZ001325 %R 10.1899/08-113.1 %0 Journal Article %J Biodiversity and Conservation %D 2006 %T Fire frequency and mosaic burning effects on atallgrass prairie ground beetle assemblage %A Cook, W.M. %A Holt, R.D. %K Carabidae %K Fire frequency %K Ground beetles %K Pitfall trapping %K Species richness %K tallgrass prairie %X Fire frequency has significant effects on the biota of tallgrass prairie, including mammals, vascular plants and birds. Recent concern has been expressed that widespread annual burning, sometimes in combination with heavy livestock grazing, negatively impacts the biota of remaining prairie remnants. A common management recommendation, intended to address this problem, is to create a landscape with a mosaic of different burn regimes. Pitfall trapping was used to investigate the impacts of fire pattern on the diversity and species composition of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) at Konza Prairie Biological Station in eastern Kansas, USA. Trapping was conducted over three seasons in landscape units burned on average every 1, 4, or 20 years, and in a fourth season across the available range of vegetative structure to assess the variability of the community within the study system. In the fifth season communities were also followed immediately after two fire events to detect within-season effects of fire and to study short-term patterns of post-disturbance community assembly. Fire frequency had comparatively minimal effects on ground beetle diversity measures, and most numerically common species were observed widely across habitat and management types. Fire frequency effects were manifested primarily in changes in abundance of common species. Colonization of burned areas apparently did not occur from juxtaposed non-burned areas, but from underground or from long distances. While these results suggest that widespread annual burning of tallgrass prairie remnants may not have dramatic effects on prairie ground beetles, we urge caution regarding the application of these results to other taxa within tallgrass prairie. %B Biodiversity and Conservation %V 15 %P 2301 -2323 %G eng %M KNZ001068 %R 10.1007/s10531-004-8227-3 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Mammalogy %D 2006 %T Species richness- productivity relationship for small mammals along a desert-grassland continuum: differential responses of functional groups %A Reed, A.W. %A Kaufman, G.A. %A D.W. Kaufman %K desert %K functional group %K Grasslands %K Primary productivity %K Resource heterogeneity %K small mammals %K Species richness %X We used published data to calculate small-mammal species richness at 43 sites in North America to examine the response of species richness to increasing primary productivity. We estimated species richness for the entire community and for each of 4 functional groups (insectivore, granivore, herbivore, and omnivore). Total richness exhibited a significant unimodal relationship to increasing amounts of annual precipitation and was driven by granivores; this functional group exhibited the most pronounced decline in richness with high precipitation. We suggest that the decline in granivore richness is due to increased litter associated with increased productivity. %B Journal of Mammalogy %V 87 %P 777 -783 %G eng %M KNZ001039 %R 10.1644/05-MAMM-A-253R2.1 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society %D 2003 %T Butterflies (Lepidoptera) of Konza Prairie Biological Station: An annotated checklist %A Wright, V.F. %A Huber, R.L. %A Huber, C.L. %K Butterfly survey %K host record %K Kansas county records %K Species richness %K tallgrass prairie %X Konza Prairie Biological Station is a native tallgrass prairie preserve in Riley and deary Counties. Kansas, where seventy-eight species of butterflies (Lepidoptera) were collected or sighted from 1997 through 1999. Basedon known larva] hosts, 65% were from prairie or open field habitats with 24% grass feeders, 25% from woodland or woodland borders and approximately 10% from mixed or unknown habitats. There were 1I new records for Riley County: Northern Cloudy Wing, Thorybes pylades (Scudder) (Hesperiidae), Funeral Dusky Wing, Erynnis funeralis (Scudder & Burgess) (Hesperiidae), Little Glassywing, Pompeius verna (W. Edwards) (Hesperiidae), Byssus Skipper, Problema byssus kumskaka (Scudder) (Hesperiidae), Hobomok Skipper, Poanes hobomok (T. Harris) (Hesperiidae), Dusted Skipper, Atrytonopsis hianna turneri H. A. Freeman (Hesperiidae), Coral Hairstreak, Harkenclenus titus (Fabricius) (Lycaenidae), Banded Hairstreak, Satyrium calanus falacer (Godart) (Lycaenidae) and Hickory Hairstreak, Satyrium caryaevorum (McDunnough) (Lycaenidae), Summer Azure, Celastrina neglecta (W. Edwards) (Lycaenidae) and Northern Pearly Eye. Enodia anthedon A. H. Clark (Satyridae). The larvae of Reakirt's Blue, Hemiargus isola ah-e (W. Edwards) (Lycaenidae) were found feeding on the flowers of Catclaw Sensitive Briar, Shrankia nuttallii (DC.) Standl. (Mimosaceae), a new host record A checklist is given for species found during the survey period and those whose host, habitat or distribution make it likely they may be found on Konza Prairie in the future. %B Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society %V 76 %P 469 -476 %G eng %U http://www.jstor.org/stable/25086135 %M KNZ00874 %0 Journal Article %J Oecologia %D 2003 %T A comparative assessment of potential mechanisms influencing plant species richness in grazed grasslands %A Bakker, C. %A John M. Blair %A Alan K. Knapp %K colonization %K Grazing %K heterogeneity %K Species richness %K tallgrass prairie %X Grazing by large ungulates often increases plant species richness in grasslands of moderate to high productivity. In a mesic North American grassland with and without the presence of bison (Bos bison), a native ungulate grazer, three non-exclusive hypotheses for increased plant species richness in grazed grasslands were evaluated: (1) bison grazing enhances levels of resource (light and N) availability, enabling species that depend on higher resource availability to co-occur; (2) spatial heterogeneity in resource availability is enhanced by bison, enabling coexistence of a greater number of plant species; (3) increased species turnover (i.e. increased species colonization and establishment) in grazed grassland is associated with enhanced plant species richness. We measured availability and spatial heterogeneity in light, water and N, and calculated species turnover from long-term data in grazed and ungrazed sites in a North American tallgrass prairie. Both regression and path analyses were performed to evaluate the potential of the three hypothesized mechanisms to explain observed patterns of plant species richness under field conditions. Experimental grazing by bison increased plant species richness by 25% over an 8-year period. Neither heterogeneity nor absolute levels of soil water or available N were related to patterns of species richness in grazed and ungrazed sites. However, high spatial heterogeneity in light and higher rates of species turnover were both strongly related to increases in plant species richness in grazed areas. This suggests that creation of a mosaic of patches with high and low biomass (the primary determinant of light availability in mesic grasslands) and promotion of a dynamic species pool are the most important mechanisms by which grazers affect species richness in high productivity grasslands. %B Oecologia %V 137 %P 385 -391 %G eng %M KNZ00873 %R 10.1007/s00442-003-1360-y %0 Journal Article %J Sida %D 2002 %T Vascular plants of Konza Prairie Biological Station: An annotated checklist of species in a Kansas tallgrass prairie %A Towne, E.G. %K Biodiversity %K prairie flora %K Species richness %K tallgrass prairie %K vascular plant survey %X The native and naturalized vascular plants of Konza Prairie Biological Station, a 3487-ha tallgrass prairie research site located in the Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas, are listed along with their primary habitat, relative abundance, flowering period, and life span. After more than 25 years of collections, the known vascular flora of Konza Prairie consists of 576 species, representing 336 genera and 96 families. Families with the most species are Poaceae (84), Asteraceae (79), Fabaceae (49), and Cyperaceae (33). Non-native species (n = 96) comprise 16.7% of the total flora. When categorized by life span, 64.6% of all species are perennials, 31.3% are annuals, and 4.2% are biennials. Species that are characteristically associated with a prairie habitat comprise 40.6% of the flora, followed by species in disturbed (22.4%), woodland (22.2%), and wetland (14.8%) habitats. In the prairie habitat, 16.2% of the species are grasses and 76.9% are herbaceous forbs. The C⁴ photosynthetic pathway occurs in 59.5% of all grass species and in 70.8% of the annual grasses. The diversified habitats created by management and research activities on Konza Prairie provide a flora richness that is likely greater than that of any other area of comparable size in the Great Plains region. %B Sida %V 20 %P 269 -294 %G eng %U http://www.jstor.org/stable/41968021 %M KNZ00818