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SGS-LTER Earthwatch project: nitrogen and carbon in native, abandoned and cultivated fields in eastern Colorado, USA

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. Our objective in this study was to evaluate effects of land use on in situ net N mineralization in shortgrass steppe by comparing native and abandoned fields and cultivated fields, and by comparing soil under and between plants within native and abandoned fields. We also compared mineralization patterns between in situ and laboratory incubations to evaluate the role of environmental restrictions in determining N supply across management treatments and microsites.

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)

Rights Access

Subject

nitrogen mineralization
carbon
inorganic nutrients
nitrogen
organic matter

Citation

Associated Publications

Burke, Ingrid C., William K. Lauenroth and Debra P. Coffin, Soil organic matter recovery in semiarid grasslands: implications for the Conservation Reserve Program. Ecological Applications, 5, no. 3 (August 1995): 793-801. http://hdl.handle.net/10217/82106
Ihori, Tamiko, Ingrid C. Burke and Paul B. Hook, Nitrogen mineralization in native cultivated and abandoned fields in shortgrass steppe. Plant and Science 171, no. 2 (April 1995): 203-208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00010273
Ihori, Tamiko. Effects of Cultivation and Recovery on Soil Organic Matter and N Mineralization in Shortgrass Steppe. (Unpublished master's thesis). Colorado State University, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10217/171878