Konza LTER investigators, Sara Baer and Melinda Smith, are featured in a recent NRDC article, entitled "Climate Change May Bring Big Trouble to Big Bluestems (and the Cattle That Love Them)." The article discusses their research on climate changes' effects on big bluestem.
A recent article in EPA Science Matters discusses air management technology the EPA is utilizing at Konza to determine best practices for smoke management. They are using KNZ burned watersheds that have been part of the ongoing season of the year LTER experiment for 22 years.
KNZ investigator, Keith Gido, discusses water conservation with regards to the Ogallala Aquifer.
A recent KNZ publication, entitled "Asynchrony among local communities stabilises ecosystem function of metacommunities," is one of the recent publications featured in this month's LTER Science Update.
Two KSU distinguished professors will lead an interdisciplinary university team collaborating with four other Kansas universities on a new $20 million project funded by the NSF to investigate how microbiomes of aquatic habitats, plants and soils can enhance agricultural productivity, mitigate environmental problems and conserve native grasslands.
Lessons for a Thirsty World - KU Hydrogeology Seeks Solutions: Among the many discoveries Macpherson and her students have made is that the amount of carbon dioxide in groundwater is increasing just as it is increasing in the atmosphere, except that carbon dioxide is increasing about seven times faster in groundwater than the atmosphere. As the amount of carbon dioxide has increased, so has the rate of weathering.
NSF has awarded Konza Prairie Biological Station and the Division of Biology nearly $225,000 to upgrade facilities for the Long-Term Bison Grazing Experiment. The award will provide funds to replace certain section of the Konza Prairie corral area, build 8 additional working pens, provide easier access for researchers along the bison perimeter fence, and additional remote scales to increase frequency of measurements to document seasonal dynamics of body weight.
The food web in Great Plains streams could be unraveling, according to a Kansas State University ecologist.
Keith Gido, professor of biology, and Josh Perkin, a Kansas State University alumnus, recently published "Groundwater declines are linked to changes in Great Plains stream fish assemblages" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research maps the loss of stream habitat for many small fish in the Great Plains region and attributes it to declining groundwater sources.
Kim Komatsu, a Konza LTER reseacher, was interviewed in a recent edition of Shorelines, Life and science at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
Walter Dodds, university distinguished professor in the Division of Biology, is the 2017 recipient of the Society for Freshwater Science Award of Excellence.
Numerous LTER sites, including Konza LTER, were featured recently in Discover Magazine in an article entitled, Diary of a Changing Planet. The article chronicles a plant in flux. Konza LTER is featured on slide 7.
Global synthesis of the temperature sensitivity of leaf litter breakdown in streams and rivers, a recent Global Change Biology article by Konza LTER investigators, Walter Dodds and Lydia Zeglin, and others, has been featured in the May/June 2017 edition of LTER in the News.
Grazing by bison is stronger driver of plant ecohydrology in tallgrass prairie than fire history, a recent Plant and Soil article by Kimberly O'Keefe and Jesse Nippert, has been featured in the April 2017 edition of the LTER Science Update.
Home of the Range: Konza Prairie Biological Station works to conserve one of the most diminished ecosystems in North America is the title of an article in the latest edition of Seek, Kansas State University's research magazine. The article covers the research occurring at Konza and its importance.
Congratulation to KNZ LTER PhD student, Rory O’Connor! Rory was awarded first place in the PhD oral paper presentation category of the 2017 Society for Range Management Graduate Student Paper Competition. His presentation was entitled “Browsing Impacts Resprouting Shrub Physiology in a Woody Encroached Grassland.” Rory's adviser is Dr. Jesse Nippert.
What (and When) is the Point of No Return? | Ecological Monographs
How—and when—do ecosystems change character? Are those shifts reversible? And what signs might precede them? Such questions are hard enough to answer in a single place. One might think that incorporating different kinds of ecosystems would only complicate the problem. But a group of scientists in the Long-Term Ecological Research Network is finding a remarkably consistent pattern by combining models and data across several long-term ecological experiments. Their study, published in Ecological Monographs, asks how the intensity and duration of changes interact to determine whether an ecosystem shift is temporary or more likely to be permanent. (Marty Downs)
A children’s book written by a Kansas State University environmental educator aims to teach children about the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. “The Autumn Calf” by Jill Haukos, director of education for the Konza Environmental Education Program, tells a true story of a newborn bison calf born at the Konza Prairie Biological Station in fall 2012, according to a news release. A herd of about 300 wild bison lives on the 8,600-acre Konza Prairie, which is owned by K-State and The Nature Conservancy, as part of the research station’s native grazing and tallgrass prairie research.
During spring 2015, creative writing graduate student Saraiya Kanning traveled from Tucson AZ to the Konza Prairie to try to fall in love with the "little brown jobs"... the cryptic, brownish sparrows that make the prairie their home. After spending several days shadowing Konza researcher Alice Boyle, she discovered not only the subtle beauty of one of our most common bird species, but also learned a lot about how prairies function, and how their management affects wildlife. Her account, reaching thousands of birders nationally, highlights several of the main themes of the Konza LTER including the role of grazing and fire on grassland population dynamics.
Congratulations to Melinda Smith, who has been elected for her seminal contributions to understanding environmental drivers of grassland community structure through field experiments, cutting-edge genomics, and collaborative synthesis.
Andrew Hope, Kansas State University research assistant professor in the Division of Biology, and his colleagues across the U.S. have published "Shrews and Their Parasites: Small Species Indicate Big Changes" in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2016 Arctic Report Card. The study indicates an expansion in the range of the forest-dwelling masked shrew in Alaska, while the range of its tundra neighbor to the north, the barren ground shrew, constricts and fragments whenever the climate warms.
Alice Boyle, assistant professor of biology, is studying the movements of grasshopper sparrows, songbirds that weigh only about 17 grams and nest on the ground in Flint Hills tallgrass prairies as well as other grassland areas in the United States.
John Briggs, professor of biology and director of the Konza Prairie Biological Station, will give a public lecture at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, in 328 Waters Hall. Briggs will present some of the threats causing large-scale transformation of tallgrass prairie grasslands to savanna-like ecosystems.