Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL)
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These digital collections include faculty publications, presentations, reports, and datasets from the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL). Included here are individual datasets for the Ethiopia Project, Shortgrass Steppe-Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER), Riparian Habitat and Invasive Species in the Colorado River Basin, and Yellowstone Willows LTREB. Also included is a collection of publications by Eldor A. Paul, a Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and a Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.
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Browsing Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) by Subject "aboveground net primary productivity"
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Item Open Access Biochemical responses of US Great Plains grasslands to regional and interannual variability in precipitation (1999-2001)(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1999-2001) Burke, Ingrid C.This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Repository (http://hdl.handle.net/10217/100254). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Carbon (C) sequestration potential in grasslands is thought to be high due to the large soil organic carbon pools characteristic of these ecosystems. Inputs of C (aboveground net primary productivity) are highly correlated to precipitation across the Great Plains region; however, changes in C pool size at a specific site are governed by the relative input and output rates across time. Our objective was to quantify the ecosystem C response of three grassland community types (shortgrass steppe, mixed grass and tallgrass prairie) to interannual variation in precipitation. At five sites across a precipitation gradient in the Great Plains, we measured net primary production (NPP), soil respiration (SRESP), and litter decomposition rates for three consecutive years. NPP, SRESP, and litter decomposition increased from shortgrass steppe (175, 454, and 47 g C m-2 yr-1) to tallgrass prairie (408, 1221, and 348 g C m-2 yr-1 for NPP, SRESP, and litter decomposition respectively). Increased growing season precipitation between study years resulted in increased NPP, SRESP, and litter decomposition at almost all sites. However, the regional patterns of the interannual NPP, SRESP, and litter decomposition responses differ from each other. This data suggests NPP and SRESP are more sensitive to interannual changes in precipitation than litter decomposition, and that shortgrass steppe sites are more responsive to interannual variability in precipitation than mixed grass and tallgrass prairie.Item Open Access SGS-LTER aboveground vegetation measurements on and off US Forest Service burns on the Pawnee National Grassland, Colorado, USA 1997-2004(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1997-2004) Milchunas, Daniel G.This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Repository (http://hdl.handle.net/10217/100254). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Most investigators studying grasslands have assumed that the low standing biomass of the SGS created a system with a low probability of carrying fire, and thus a minimal historical role of fire. Nonetheless, there are years with aboveground biomass equivalent to the mixed grass prairie, and a high frequency of lightening storms. Regardless of the historical role of fire in SGS, there are new questions regarding its utility in managing for the presence of the threatened mountain plover, which only nests in areas of low plant biomass. United States Forest Service, Pawnee National Grassland recently initiated a burning program in the mid 1990s to address questions about using fire to increase plover habitat; we have collected data on some of these plots to investigate the influence of fire on SGS vegetation. Several datasets were created between 1999 and 2004 by SGS-LTER researchers, including measurements of shrub and cactus mortality rates, aboveground net primary production, amounts of litter and standing dead, and aboveground nitrogen dynamics in burned and control plots in the western section of the Pawnee National Grassland.Item Open Access SGS-LTER standard production data: 1983-2008 annual aboveground net primary production on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1983-2008, ARS study number 6(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1983-2008) Lauenroth, William K.This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Repository (http://hdl.handle.net/10217/100254). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. The objective of the long-term ANPP study is to monitor long-term net above ground primary production of the shortgrass steppe community by species. There are 6 sites: ridgetop (ridge), midslope (mid), swale, ESA (replicate 1 not 2), Section 25 (SEC 25), and owl-creek (OC). Each site is located in a different landscape position or soil type on the shortgrass steppe and may be grazed or not. Ridgetop, midslope and swale are grazed and are sampled along a catena. Section 25 is grazed and is located in an upload grassland. ESA is an ungrazed upland grassland and is the control from the Ecosystem Stress Area experiment. Owl Creek is ungrazed and is located in the lowland along the owl creek drainage. There are 3 transects with 5 plots in each transect. Plots in the grazed locations are protected by cages. Because this is a monitoring effort, true replicates across the landscape are not available and it is recommended that the transect be used in calculating mean production at each sampling location.