The 33rd Konza Prairie LTER Annual Meeting

The 33rd annual Konza Prairie LTER workshop was held on May 27, 2026, at the Prairie Biological Station in Cortelyou Lecture Hall. More than 50 participants attended the workshop.

1. Welcome and meeting overview (Jesse Nippert)
2. Managing woody encroachment in prairies: does browsing control expanding clonal shrub populations? (Sophie Wieland, KSU)
3. Will "Reversing Drivers" accelerate change following nitrogen cessation? (Rachael Brenneman, UNCG)
4. Weighing the pros and cons of patch-burn grazing: responses of communities across trophic groups (Joshua Ajowele, UNCG)
5. Who’s afraid of the big, bad predator? Predation risk and intermittency (Meredith Bennett, Ohio State / KSU)
6. C4 photosynthetic subtypes occupy different seasonal optima (Klara Stevermer, KSU)
7. The point of no return: Fish resilience in drying prairie streams (Maija Weaver, KSU)
8. Variation in planting-year climate predicts ecosystem functioning in developing prairie (Lydia Regier, KU)
9. Agricultural legacies in prairie plant and soil microbial communities across the Great Plains precipitation gradient (Hannah Dea, KSU)
10. Change on the range: Grazing reversals in a changing environment (Rosalie Terry, UNCG)
11. Variation in soil CO2 among woody and grassy soils in a tallgrass prairie (Saranya Puthalath, KSU)
12. Woody encroachment and the drying of prairie streams in the Flint Hills (Torsha Goswami, KSU)
13. Business meeting (Meghan Avolio and Jesse Nippert) Solidago petiolaris
14. Safety orientation (John Blair)
15. Updates, Q&A, final thoughts
16. John Blair retirement celebration

  • List Posters:

1. It's a pore decision: stomatal traits and drought response in C4 grasses (Chloe Danner, KSU)
2. Variation in soil carbon accumulation rates in prairie sites restored under different climate conditions (Marcos Gimenez Diaz, KU)
3. Grazing lawns and the unknown (Corina McTigue, KSU)
4. Restoration chronosequence experiment: Testing agricultural legacies in soil ecosystems (Matt Nieland, UMass Amherst)
5. Plant community response to water manipulation under propagule addition in a restored grassland (Lydia Westberg, KU)