SGS-LTER spatial variability in seed production of the perennial bunchgrass Bouteloua gracilis on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1992-2005, ARS study number 20
Date
1992-2005
Authors
Lauenroth, William K.
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Abstract
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. Production of seeds of Bouteloua gracilis was evaluated for a semiarid grassland in northeastern Colorado. Ten locations were chosen to represent the range in soil textures and grazing intensities found at the Central Plains Experimental Range research site. Number of flowering culms, inforescences and seeds, length of each flowering culm, total biomass or reproductive structures (culms, inforescences and seeds), and basal areas were assessed for each plant sampled. Community-level estimates of density of flowering culms and density of viable seeds are made for each location. Both soil texture and grazing intensity by cattle are important to spatial variability in seed production and other indicators of reproductive effort by B. gracilis.
Description
The Short Grass Steppe site encompasses a large portion of the Colorado Piedmont Section of the western Great Plains. The extent is defined as the boundaries of the Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER). The CPER has a single ownership and landuse (livestock grazing). The PNG is characterized by a mosaic of ownership and land use. Ownership includes federal, state or private and land use consists of livestock grazing or row-crops. There are NGO conservation groups that exert influence over the area, particularly on federal lands.
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL)
Shortgrass Steppe-Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER)
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL)
Shortgrass Steppe-Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER)
Rights Access
Subject
populations
population dynamics
plants
aboveground net primary production
Citation
Associated Publications
Coffin, Debra P. and William K. Lauenroth, Spatial Variability in Seed Production of the Perennial Bunchgrass Bouteloua gracilis (Gramineae). American Journal of Botany 79, no. 3 (March 1992): 347-353. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1992.tb14558.x