Estimated evapotranspiration from a hypothetical short grass with a height of 0.12 m, a surface resistance of 70 s m-1, and an albedo of 0.23 (no water stress). Dataset contains daily total estimated evapotranspiration.
Dates of records of occurrence for all bird species reported on Konza Prairie.
Dates by species of documented records of breeding - either nests or dependent, fledged young - with contents of nest, nest placement information and location on Konza Prairie recorded by grid square.
Konza Prairie Terrestrial Arthropods Species List. This species list has been modified since 1977, last modified by Ellen Welti and Anthony Joern in 2014.
Litterfall is collected monthly (more frequently during peak litterfall in October and November) at permanent sampling sites in the mixed deciduous gallery forest located along the lower reaches of Kings Creek at the Konza Prairie Biological Station. Thirty litterfall traps, 50 x 50 cm (.25 m2) are located along the north fork of Kings Creek, and two are located on the south fork of Kings Creek. The north fork boxes are numbered 31 to 60 and the south fork boxes are numbered 1 and 2.
The objectives of this project are to quantify the seasonably variable timing among meteoric precipitation, groundwater recharge, and groundwater temperature. Hypotheses are: 1. Because of the karst-like characteristics of the aquifers in N04d (and by extension, the entire region), recharge will be rapid during moderately large precipitation events where fractures are enlarged by dissolution and therefore highly conductive, except during the most active part of the growing season. 2.
Long-term monitoring of bird presence is performed on Konza Prairie. The purpose was to determine bird species phenology of occurrence on entire Konza Prairie. Data on the presence, including documented nesting, of all bird species is recorded weekly in five-year periods e.g. 1980-1984, 1985-1989, 1990-1994.
Frequent burning is a common land practice in many grasslands worldwide, and this land use strategy has large impacts on a wide variety of ecosystem functions and services. Fire in tallgrass prairie, in the absence of grazing, alters plant community composition, decreases richness, and increases plant production. Proposed mechanisms for the changes in community composition and function are that fire decreases N availability (through volatilization) and removes litter (thereby increasing light availability and decreasing soil moisture).
Annual aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) from the Sequential Prairie Restoration Experiment at the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research site in Manhattan, KS USA. The data include ANPP from the first three years of restoration in each of three restoration sequences initiated in different years. Data correspond to subplot and whole-plot analyses.
We manipulated key resources that influence plant diversity in tallgrass prairie (i.e., soil depth and nitrogen availability) to increase environmental heterogeneity prior to sowing native prairie species into a former agricultural field.
Recent models suggest that herbivores optimize nutrient intake by selecting patches of low to intermediate vegetation biomass. We assessed the application of this hypothesis to plains bison (Bison bison) in an experimental grassland managed with fire by estimating daily rates of nutrient intake in relation to grass biomass and by measuring patch selection in experimental watersheds in which grass biomass was manipulated by prescribed burning.
Rainfall Manipulation Plots facility (RaMPs) is a unique experimental infrastructure that allows us to manipulate precipitation events and temperature, and assess population community, and ecosystem responses in native grassland. This facility allows us to manipulate the amount and timing of individual precipitation events in replicated field plots at the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site.
This GPS-collar data set was used to evaluate the factors that influence where bison choose to graze and how grazing and space use patterns affect ecosystem function and structure. Our objectives were to quantify space use and movement patterns of adult female Plains bison in the context of selection for specific prescribed burn frequencies and topographical features in the bison-grazed watersheds at Konza Prairie.
Managing soil to sequester C can help mitigate increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. To maximize this ecosystem service, more knowledge of factors influencing C sequestration is needed. The objectives of this study were to (i) quantify recovery of the roots, microbial biomass and composition, and soil structure across a chronosequence of grassland restorations and (ii) use a structural equation model to develop a data-based hypothesis on the relative influence of physical and biological soil properties on the soil C aggregate fraction diagnostic of sequestered C.
This data set contains a list of Konza Prairie plant species numeric codes, full plant species names, and some general information about plant growth and life form, and photosynthetic pathway as well. Konza plant species data sets (PVC01, PVC02, WAT012, etc.) use those numeric codes and abbreviations for all of the plant species recorded.
Anthropogenic actions have significantly increased biological nitrogen (N) availability on a global scale. In tallgrass prairies, this phenomenon is exacerbated by land management changes, such as fire suppression. Historically, tallgrass prairie fire removed N through volatilization, but fire suppression has contributed to increased soil N availability as well as woody encroachment. Because soil microbes respond to N availability and plant growth, these changes may alter microbial composition and important microbially-mediated functions.
Understanding spatial and temporal variation in plant traits is needed to accurately predict how communities and ecosystems will respond to global change. The National Observatory Ecological Network (NEON) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) provides hyperspectral images and associated data products at numerous field sites at 1 m spatial resolution, allowing high-resolution trait mapping. However, the reliability of these data depend on establishing rigorous links with in-situ field measurements.
Woody plants are increasing prevalence and dominance in many rangelands around the world. The reason for their increase is various but two common drivers that have changed are an increase in CO2 concentrations and alteration to precipitation dynamics. We asked what the physiological growth dynamics of four juvenile woody plant species (Cornus drummondii, Rhus glabra, Gleditsia triacanthos and Juniperus osteosperma) when grown in elevated CO2 and chronically water stressed.
Climate variability and periodic droughts have complex effects on carbon (C) fluxes, with uncertain implications for ecosystem C balance under a changing climate. Responses to climate change can be modulated by persistent effects of climate history on plant communities, soil microbial activity, and nutrient cycling (i.e., legacies). To assess how legacies of past precipitation regimes influence tallgrass prairie C cycling under new precipitation regimes, we modified a long-term irrigation experiment that simulated a wetter climate for >25 years.
