SGS-LTER long term nitrogen concentration in LTNPP monitoring on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1983-2011, ARS study number 6
Date
1983-2011
Authors
Milchunas, Daniel G.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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. Aboveground plant nitrogen dynamics monitoring consists of two separate data sets. a) Long-term peak-crop nitrogen concentrations have been sampled since 1983 annually from sites sampled for ANPP estimates across the CPER. Plots are clipped for ANPP in August each year and include moderately grazed sites in sections 24 and 25, ungrazed treatments at ESA and owl creek, coarse textured soils in owl creek, fine textured soils in section 25, as well as three catena topopositions in section 24. These datasets have been designed for monitoring and so it is advised to consider calculating average based at the transect level. B) Seasonal dynamics of life-form (dominant grass, forb, shrub species) nitrogen concentrations were obtained from random grab samples of aboveground plant tissue are taken monthly from May-Aug. and in Oct., Dec., Feb., and April from 1983 – 2007 at sites where ANPP has been collected since 1983 (ESA, ridge, mid-slope and swale in section 24). The objectives are to assess annual/seasonal weather and site productivity/management with quantity and quality of forage and/or litter production. Combined, these two data sets also provide an estimate of nitrogen yield. These data can be linked with secondary producer data sets such as annual cattle weight gains, grasshopper abundance, small mammal monitoring, etc., to assess how forage/plant tissue quantity and quality drive population dynamics.
Description
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL)
Shortgrass Steppe-Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER)
Shortgrass Steppe-Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER)
Rights Access
Subject
organic nitrogen
nitrogen
organic matter
landscape
catena