This dataset defines the nature trails found at Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS). The trails data shows locations of the different Konza maintained walking trails including leg distances and loop names.

These data are available to download as zipped shapefiles (.zip), compressed Google Earth KML layers (.kmz).

This dataset defines the permanent buildings located on the Konza Prairie Biological Station (KBPS). The data include building names and addresses. These data are available as zipped (.zip) shapefiles (.shp).

These data show the locations of research conducted at the below ground plots near Konza Headquarters. Record type 1 (GIS350) describes the 64 belowground plots receiving a variety of nutrient, burn, and mowing treatments. Data for BMS01, BMS02, and BNS01 are collected on these plots. Record type 6 (GIS355) describes the locations of the Micro-Rhizotrons. Two spatial datasets lie on the belowground plots, but are classified separately. These are the Lysimeters on belowground plots (GIS455) and Aboveground biomass on belowground plots (GIS505) datasets.

These data show the sample locations for soil bulk density and chemical characteristics along LTER vegetation plots. This dataset contains the transect lines (GIS450) and sample locations(GIS451) at which the soil cores are sampled. These data may be used in conjunction with the Soil Chemistry and Bulk Density (NSC01) datasets. GIS455 contains the locations of the lysimeters used to measure soil water chemistry on the belowground plots. These data may be used in conjunction with the NBS01 dataset. GIS460 contains the locations of the bulk precipitation collectors on Konza Prairie.

These data show the sample locations for datasets pertaining to primary production at Konza Prairie. These data reference various treatments across Konza including varying burn frequencies, belowground plots, patch burn, exclosures, etc.Record type one (GIS500) contains sample locations for estimated standing crop biomass in various burning-grazing treatments (PABXX).

Annual aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) from the Sequential Prairie Restoration Experiment at the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research site in Manhattan, KS USA. The data (SRP011) include ANPP from the first three years of restoration in each of three restoration sequences initiated in different years. Data correspond to subplot and whole-plot analyses.

Woody encroachment into grasslands, savannas, and steppes have become a management and conservation concern worldwide because of the ability of woody plants to change ecosystems through decreases in biodiversity, alterations in water and nutrient cycles as well as decreases in forage production and quality. In grasslands, woody encroachment can be categorized into two groups: non-resprouting species that can be killed with fire and resprouting species that cannot be killed with fire.

PBG datasets are associated with a long-term, large-scale study that is addressing the effects of fire-grazing interactions in the context of a Patch-Burn Grazing management system designed to promote grassland heterogeneity. Effects of patch-burn grazing management on plant and animal diversity and the nature and variety of wildlife habitat are being assessed in two replicate management units, each consisting of three pastures (watersheds) designated C03A/C03B/C03C and C3SA/C3SB/C3SC. In each patch-burn grazing unit, one watershed is burned and two that are left unburned in a given year.

PBG datasets are associated with a long-term, large-scale study that is addressing the effects of fire-grazing interactions in the context of a Patch-Burn Grazing management system designed to promote grassland heterogeneity. Effects of patch-burn grazing management on plant and animal diversity and the nature and variety of wildlife habitat are being assessed in two replicate management units, each consisting of three pastures (watersheds) designated C03A/C03B/C03C and C3SA/C3SB/C3SC. In each patch-burn grazing unit, one watershed is burned and two that are left unburned in a given year.

Recent models suggest that herbivores optimize nutrient intake by selecting patches of low to intermediate vegetation biomass. We assessed the application of this hypothesis to plains bison (Bison bison) in an experimental grassland managed with fire by estimating daily rates of nutrient intake in relation to grass biomass and by measuring patch selection in experimental watersheds in which grass biomass was manipulated by prescribed burning.

This GPS-collar data set was used to evaluate the factors that influence where bison choose to graze and how grazing and space use patterns affect ecosystem function and structure. Our objectives were to quantify space use and movement patterns of adult female Plains bison in the context of selection for specific prescribed burn frequencies and topographical features in the bison-grazed watersheds at Konza Prairie.

Chronic nutrient additions can lead to drastic shifts in the plant community through time, both within tallgrass prairie in other grassland ecosystems worldwide. Nutrient addition experiments have answered many questions about patterns of diversity loss and community shifts; however, the level of nutrients which must be added to cause community shifts is unknown. To date, all nitrogen (N) addition experiments at Konza have added 10 g m-2 (e.g., NutNet Plots; Phosphorus (P) Plots; Belowground Plots), yet current rates of N deposition are one-tenth of that level.

Managing soil to sequester C can help mitigate increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. To maximize this ecosystem service, more knowledge of factors influencing C sequestration is needed. The objectives of this study were to (i) quantify recovery of the roots, microbial biomass and composition, and soil structure across a chronosequence of grassland restorations and (ii) use a structural equation model to develop a data-based hypothesis on the relative influence of physical and biological soil properties on the soil C aggregate fraction diagnostic of sequestered C.

The dataset (Key for Plant Species Codes in Konza Prairie Community Composition Datasets) contains a numeric code for each vascular plant species that has been recorded in any Konza Prairie LTER plant community composition dataset (e.g. PVC02, PBG01, WAT01, BGPVC). Each code designates a vasular plant taxon (species level). Variables include: family, genus, specific epithet, lifespan, growth form, origin, photosynthetic pathway (for grasses).

The distribution, structure and function of mesic savanna grasslands are strongly driven by fire regimes, grazing by large herbivores, and their interactions. This research addresses a general question about our understanding of savanna grasslands globally: Is our knowledge of fire and grazing sufficiently general to enable us to make accurate predictions of how these ecosystems will respond to changes in these drivers over time? Some evidence suggests that fire and grazing influence savanna grassland structure and function differently in South Africa (SA) compared to North America (NA).

These data show locations for some experiments at Konza Prairie including: Chronic Addition of Nitrogen Gradient Experiment (ChANGE), Ghost Fire, Shrub Rainfall Manipulation Plots (ShRaMPs), sampling locations for ingrowth cores collected as part of the ShRaMPs experiment, Climate Extremes Experiment, Drought-Net, the Experimental Streams Experiment, the Nutrient Network Experiment, Phosphorous Plots experiment, the Vert-Invert experiment, and restoration areas.

Anthropogenic actions have significantly increased biological nitrogen (N) availability on a global scale. In tallgrass prairies, this phenomenon is exacerbated by land management changes, such as fire suppression. Historically, tallgrass prairie fire removed N through volatilization, but fire suppression has contributed to increased soil N availability as well as woody encroachment. Because soil microbes respond to N availability and plant growth, these changes may alter microbial composition and important microbially-mediated functions.

The concentration and isotopic composition of soil carbon and nitrogen were measured from select archived soil cores originally collected for the NSC01 dataset using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer coupled with an elemental analyzer. These soil cores were collected from the lowlands (25 cm depth) of four experimental watersheds in 1982, 1987, 2002, 2010, and 2015. The four experimental watersheds are 001d, n01b, 020b, and n20b.

Data describe soil chemistry collected during the 2017-2021 growing seasons at the Belowground Plot Experiment to assess for legacies. Whole plot-scale nitrogen fertilization at the Experiment ceased in 2017. Four subplots within each historically fertilized plot were set up to continue the annual fertilization treatment for soil chemistry.

Understanding spatial and temporal variation in plant traits is needed to accurately predict how communities and ecosystems will respond to global change. The National Observatory Ecological Network (NEON) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) provides hyperspectral images and associated data products at numerous field sites at 1 m spatial resolution, allowing high-resolution trait mapping. However, the reliability of these data depend on establishing rigorous links with in-situ field measurements.

This data set is a compilation of data collected by multiple researchers describing nests of 48 bird species from across Konza Prairie. Compiled and edited into consistent format by Emma B. Smith, and included in her Master’s thesis. The goal of this dataset is to compile as much data on bird nests at Konza as possible. This data set includes data from other KNZ datasets CBN01 and PBG05, as well as data contributed by Page Klug, Jim Rivers, John Zimmerman, Bill Jensen, Brett Sandercock, Alice Boyle, Bram Verheijen, Bridget Sousa, Aaron Pearse, Karl Kosciuch, and Scott Hatch.

Intra-clonal stem density, natality, mortality, flowering and relative growth rate within discrete Cornus drummondii shrubs in response to fire frequency (4- vs 20-yr burn intervals) and simulated browsing. Tagged stems within individual shrubs were tracked and measured at the beginning and end of each growing season in 2018 and 2019 to assess the interactions of fire and browsing on stem demography.

Climate variability and periodic droughts have complex effects on carbon (C) fluxes, with uncertain implications for ecosystem C balance under a changing climate. Responses to climate change can be modulated by persistent effects of climate history on plant communities, soil microbial activity, and nutrient cycling (i.e., legacies). To assess how legacies of past precipitation regimes influence tallgrass prairie C cycling under new precipitation regimes, we modified a long-term irrigation experiment that simulated a wetter climate for >25 years.

Climate change is expected to shift precipitation regimes in the North American Central Plains with likely impacts on ecosystem functioning. In tallgrass prairies, water and nitrogen (N) can co-limit ecosystem processes, so changes in precipitation may have complex effects on carbon (C) and N cycling. Rates of N supply such as N mineralization and nitrification respond differently to short- and long-term patterns in water availability, and previous climate patterns may exert legacy effects on current N cycling that could alter ecosystem sensitivity to current precipitation regimes.