Research Projects Associated with the Konza Prairie LTER

The Konza Prairie LTER program supports core long-term research and provides a research platform that attracts additional researchers and supports a broad range of complementary studies in grasslands ecology. Below is a partial list of current and recent research project being conducted in whole or part at the Konza Prairie LTER site, but with support from non-LTER funding sources. Many of these projects include Konza LTER scientists, are supported by LTER experiments and data, and complement the core research activities of the Konza Prairie LTER program.

  • Title: A novel experimental and modeling study of C and N dynamics between litter, soil and the atmosphere as affected by soil fauna and litter quality

    PIs: F Cotrufo, W. Parton and D. Wall; Colorado State Univ

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Bridging the divide: Linking genomics to ecosystem responses to climate change

    PIs: M.D. Smith (Yale Univ), J. Grace (USGS), A. Knapp (Colorado State Univ)

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Bud bank demography: A new approach to assessing rangeland health and responses to environmental change

    PIs: D.C. Hartnett (Kansas State Univ) and G.W.T. Wilson (Oklahoma State Univ)

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Collaborative research: Convergence and contingencies in savanna grasslands

    PIs: M.D. Smith (Yale Univ), A. Knapp (Colorado State Univ), S. Collins (U New Mexico) and J. Blair (Kansas State Univ)

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Collaborative research: Scale, consumers and lotic ecosystem rates (SCALER): Centimeters to continents

    PIs: W. Dodds (Kansas State Univ), K. Gido (Kansas State Univ), F. Ballantyne (U Kansas), W. Wollheim (U New Hampshire), A. Helton (Duke Univ), M. Whiles (Southern Illinois Univ), A. Rosemond (U Georgia), J. Kominoski (U Georgia), W. Bowden (U Vermont), M. Flinn (Murray State Univ), J. Jones (U Alaska), T. Harms. (U Alaska), W. McDowell (U New Hampshire)

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Collaborative research: EPSCoR RII Track 2 Oklahoma and Kansas: A cybercommons for ecological forecasting

    PIs: Paul Risser (U of Oklahoma), L. Krishtalka (U Kansas), W. Dodds (Kansas State Univ) and others

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Development of a decision support framework for assessing the effects of land management decisions on ecosystem services in the Central Great Plains region

    PIs: R.B. McKane, EPA

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Dissertation research: The relative importance of species, genotype, and trait diversity on ecosystem function of the tall grass prairie under varying environmental conditions

    PIs: M. D. Smith and C. Chang, Yale University

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Dissertation research: Effects of global climate change, loss of mega-herbivore biodiversity, and altered fire regimes on savanna grassland ecosystems

    PIs: S.L. Collins and S. Koerner

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Ecological controls on biogenic silica in grasslands - The role of long-term fire and grazing history on two continents

    PIs: E.F. Kelly and A.K. Knapp, Colorado State Univ

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Ecological integrity of prairie streams as influenced by patch-burn grazing and riparian protection

    PIs: W.K. Dodds (Kansas State Univ) and M.R. Whiles (S. Illinois Univ)

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Ecosystem responses to more extreme precipitation patterns and warming

    PIs: J.M Blair (Kansas State Univ, S.L. Collins (U New Mexico), A.K. Knapp (Colorado State U) and M.D. Smith (Yale Univ)

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Ecotypic variation and functional genetic responses of a dominant grass under natural and reduced precipitation: Genes to ecosystem responses

    PIs: L. Johnson, S. Baer, K. T. Morgan, K. Garrett, E. Ackunov, P. St. Amand

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: En-Gen: Ecological genomics of soil nematode community responses: Model and non-model approaches

    PIs: M. Herman, J. Blair, T. Todd, and K. Jones, Kansas State Univ

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Hierarchical consequences of intraspecific variation on community and ecosystem re-assembly

    PIs: S.G. Baer and D. Gibson, S. Illinois Univ

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Impacts of spatially heterogeneous nitrogen to grazer distribution and activity: Effects on ecosystem function in tallgrass prairie

    PIs: A. Joern, J.M. Briggs, D. Goodin, E.G. Towne and A.M. Skibbe; Kansas State Univ

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Meta-“omics” analysis of microbial carbon cycling responses to altered rainfall inputs in native prairie soils

    PIs: D.D. Myrold, P.J. Bottomley, R.L. Hettich, J.K. Jansson, A. Jumpponen, C.W. Rice, S.G. Tringe, and N.C. VerBerkmoes

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Methane uptake by grassland soils: Biogeochemistry, microbial ecology and integrative modeling

    PIs: J. von Fischer, W. Parton, S. Matzner, C. Webb, D. Wedin; Colorado State Univ

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Nutrient Network (NutNet): A global research cooperative

    PIs:

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Separating sources of soil CO2 and their responses to warming and altered precipitation in a grassland ecosystem

    PIs: W. Cheng, U.C. Santa Cruz

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Sustaining rangelands in the Southern Great Plains in the 21st century: Adapting to and mitigating for climate change

    PIs: B. Wilcox, S. Fuhlendorf, J. Briggs, D. Elmore, B. Wu, S. Archer, W. Polley and C. Hart

    (Click here for description)

  • Title: Testing the consequences of the carbon-quality temperature hypothesis for soil organic matter decomposition

    PIs: J.M. Craine, K.K. McLauchlan (Kansas State Univ) and N. Fierer (U Colorado)

    (Click here for description)







Copyright 2016. Konza Prairie Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program. All rights reserved.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (grant DEB-1440484) under the Long Term Ecological Research Program at Konza Prairie Biological Station. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necesarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Header images courtesy of Judd Patterson

For further information regarding the website please contact the Konza LTER Information Manager