Konza Prairie News

Recent publication featured in LTER in the News

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.

The 26th Annual Konza Prairie LTER Workshop

The 26th annual Konza Prairie LTER workshop was held on May, 31, 2017 at Prairie Biological Station in the Cortelyou Lecture Hall. Over 65 participants attended the workshop. The day was filled with informative talks and a poster session consisting of 19 posters. 

Recent publication featured in April's LTER Science Update

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.

Konza Prairie featured in recent edition of Seek magazine

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.

O’Connor wins SRM student award

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.

A story about some KNZ/LTER research that was featured in the most recent LTER network news

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...

K-State educator’s children’s book tells story of bison calf born at Konza Prairie

MANHATTAN — 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...

Konza birds featured in national bird magazine

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...

Congratulations to Melinda Smith, who has been elected an ESA 2017 Fellow

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.

'Shrew'-d advice: Study of Arctic shrews, parasites indicates how climate change may affect ecosystems and communities
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...

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