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Measurements include rainfall amounts, nitrate (NO3-N), ammonia (NH4-H), soluble reactive phosphate (SRP), and total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in bulk precipitation collected at multiple locations.
Measurements include rainfall amounts, nitrate (NO3-N), ammonia (NH4-H), soluble reactive phosphate (SRP), and total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in bulk precipitation collected at multiple locations.
Litter falling to the soil surface of tallgrass prairie was measured using 5 cm x 100 cm litterfall troughs. Mass, nitrogen, and phosphorus content were measured monthly or seasonally. Variables of interest include burning frequency and soil type.
Soil chemical and physical characteristics are quantified on selected LTER watersheds adjacent to LTER vegetation sampling plots. Sampling was initiated in 1982, and is repeated every five years. A subset of variables (e.g., pH, Bray extractable P, total C, exchangeable cations) is measured on all sample dates, while additional specific variables (e.g., bulk density, soil texture, CaCO3 content, trace metals, extractable inorganic N) are measured less frequently. Methods for C and N analysis have changed over time.
Soil water nitrogen composition is measured using porous cup lysimeters. Measurements include nitrate, ammonia, phosphate, and organic nitrogen and phosphorus. Variables of interest are rainfall patterns, vegetation types, and time since burning.
Amounts and nitrogen content of water passing through the canopy of tallgrass prairie are compared to similar measurements of bulk precipitation. Measurements include nitrate, ammonia, phosphate and organic nitrogen and phosphorus content of bulk precipitation and throughfall. Variables of interest include vegetation type and amounts, time of year, and time since burning.
Conductivity was monitored in four streams draining watersheds with 1 (N01B), 2 (N02B), 4 (N04D), and 20 (N20B) year target burn frequencies. Bison grazed these treatments since May 1992. Early samples were preserved with phenyl mercuric acetate.
The Konza burn history data is downloadable by year. Watershed names and codes listed are the current watershed designations (2010). Please note that several watershed designations have changed over the history of Konza. This is inevitable due to changes in research objectives but is problematic for those wanting to discover the full burn history of a given area. In some cases watersheds have simply been renamed to reflect changes in experimental burn treatments (e.g. R20A was formerly 1A). In other cases watersheds have been subdivided or aggregated from smaller watersheds (eg.
Data set contains estimates of end-of-season standing crop biomass (grams per square meter) of live graminoids, forbs, woody plants, current year's dead, and previous year's dead vegetation for 2 soil types (shallow and deep) on watersheds of various burning-grazing treatments. Twenty quadrats (0.1 square meters) are harvested for each soil/treatment type. NOTE: Early (April) and mid-season (July) biomass was collected from 1983-1988, and these data are vailable by request.
Data set contains estimates of end-of-season standing crop biomass (grams per square meter) of live graminoids, forbs, woody plants, and previous year's dead vegetation in grazing exclosures. Date from exclosures is used to determine long-term effects of bison grazing on aboveground net primary productivity.
Canopy coverage and frequency of plant species were estimated visually in 20 circular 10 sq m plots. Six treatments were sampled, three ungrazed and three to be grazed (in the future) by native grazers (bison). In each case, one of the three watersheds was unburned, another burned annually in April, and the third burned every four years in April. In each treatment two soils were sampled: a lower slope deep fertile non-rocky soil (Tully silty clay loam) and a shallow rocky soil (Florence cherty silt loam) on level to gently sloping ridges.
Canopy coverage of all vascular plant species were estimated in 20 circular 10 sq m plots for each of the topographic positions within each included watershed at Konza Prairie.
This data set relates effects of soil, grazing intensity and burning treatments on the establishment and subsequent expansion of woody plants in prairie communities. The locations of woody vegetation are marked on a mylar overlay of an aerial photograph of the area being surveyed with an unique symbol for each species and a number for the size. For trees, size is the height to the nearest meter. For shrubs, the number of stems is recorded as a measure of size if the number is less than 25.
This dataset includes captures of mainly Grasshopper Sparrows (GRSP) prior to 2017, and after that, additionally many Dickcissels, Eastern Meadowlarks, Brown-headed Cowbirds and other songbirds. Each row pertains to an individual captured on a certain day. Individuals can repeat. Most captures include data on age, sex, head-bill, tarsus, wind chord, molt score, fat score, and mass. In many cases, a single feather was collected from each bird for isotopic analyses.
Data on the location, identity, and reproductive index (Vickery et al. 1992) of Grasshopper Sparrows prior to 2017, and after that, additionally many Dickcissels, Eastern Meadowlarks, Brown-headed Cowbirds and other songbirds within 10-ha plots on multiple watersheds units on Konza and on two adjoining units on the Rannells Preserve. Each plot was surveyed every ~7-10 days. These surveys documented individual sparrow, Dickcissel, and Eastern Meadowlark locations, and are used to calculate dispersal distances and territory densities and movements.
For more than a decade, we have compared responses of mesic (subhumid) savanna grasslands (>500 mm MAP in the tropics and >600 mm MAP outside the tropics) in North America and South Africa to alterations in both fire and grazing regimes. The long-term, comparative experiment that forms the centerpiece of this cross-continental research program is located in tallgrass prairie at the Konza Prairie Biological Station (Kansas, USA) and in knob-thorn marula savanna at the Kruger National Park (Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, South Africa).
Data from the study: Welti, E.A.R. and Joern, A. 2017. Fire and Grazing modulate the structure and resistance of plant-floral visitor networks in a tallgrass prairie. Oecologia 186: 447-458.
Like CPB01 and PBG051, this dataset includes records of bird species based on line transect sampling.