Authors

Scott Collins

Date

2015

Abstract

Two of the most pervasive human impacts on ecosystems are alteration of global nutrient budgets and changes in the abundance and identity of consumers. Fossil fuel combustion and agricultural fertilization have doubled and quintupled, respectively, global pools of nitrogen and phosphorus relative to pre-industrial levels. In spite of the global impacts of these human activities, there have been no globally coordinated experiments to quantify the general impacts on ecological systems. This experiment seeks to determine how nutrient availability controls plant biomass, diversity, and species composition in a desert grassland. This has important implications for understanding how future atmospheric deposition of nutrients (N, S, Ca, K) might affect community and ecosystem-level responses. This study is part of a larger coordinated research network that includes more than 40 grassland sites around the world. By using a standardized experimental setup that is consistent across all study sites, we are addressing the questions of whether diversity and productivity are co-limited by multiple nutrients and if so, whether these trends are predictable on a global scale.Above-ground net primary production is the change in plant biomass, represented by stems, flowers, fruit and and foliage, over time and incoporates growth as well as loss to death and decomposition. To measure this change the vegetation variables, including species composition and the cover and height of individuals, are sampled twice yearly (spring and fall) at permanent 1m x 1m plots within each site. Volumetric measurements are made using vegetation data from permanent plots (SEV231, "Effects of Multiple Resource Additions on Community and Ecosystem Processes: NutNet NPP Quadrat Sampling") and regressions correlating species biomass and volume constructed using seasonal harvest weights from SEV157, "Net Primary Productivity (NPP) Weight Data."

Handle

http://hdl.handle.net/1928/29933

Other Identifier

SEV293

Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) Identifier

knb-lter-sev.293.155436

Document Type

Dataset

Comments

This dataset was originally published on the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Data Portal, https://portal.lternet.edu, and potentially via other repositories or portals as described. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the source data package is doi:10.6073/pasta/5fee5a4260ad2e8848e24dce87c12efa, and may be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/5fee5a4260ad2e8848e24dce87c12efa. Metadata and files included in this record mirror as closely as possible the source data and documentation, with the provenance metadata and quality report generated by the LTER portal reproduced here as '*-provenance.xml' and *-report.html' files, respectively.

Rights

Data Policies: This dataset is released to the public and may be freely downloaded. Please keep the designated Contact person informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation or collaboration with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset must include proper acknowledgement of the Sevilleta LTER. Datasets must be cited as in the example provided. A copy of any publications using these data must be supplied to the Sevilleta LTER Information Manager. By downloading any data you implicitly acknowledge the LTER Data Policy (http://www.lternet.edu/data/netpolicy.html).

Source

http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/5fee5a4260ad2e8848e24dce87c12efa

Temporal coverage

2008-05-13 - 2012-01-10

Spatial coverage

Location: Deep Well is located on McKenzie Flats and is site of the longest running SEV LTER met station, number 40, which has been active since 1988. In addition to studies of meteorological variables, core line-intercept vegetation transects and line-intercept transects from the 1995 and 2001 Deep Well fires are sampled here. The mini-rhizotron study, blue and black grama compositional comparison, blue and black grama patch dynamics investigation, and kangaroo rat population assessement are all ongoing here. Deep Well Blue/Black Grama Mixed is also the location of the warming and monsoon experiments, as well as portions of the line-intercept and vegetation removal studies. On August 4, 2009, a lightning-initiated fire began on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. By August 5, 2009, the fire had reached the area of Deep Well Blue/Black Grama Mixed. While portions of this site were burned, the entirety was not. See individual projects for further information on the effects of the fire.Vegetation: The vegetation of Deep Well Blue/Black Grama Mixed is Chihuahuan Desert Grassland, dominated by black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda) and blue grama (B. gracilis). Other grasses found at the site include dropseeds (Sporobolus spp.) and threeawns (Aristida spp.). Shrubs are uncommon but those that occur include Yucca glauca, Ephedra torreyi, and four-wing saltbush (Atriplex canescens). Herbaceous plants include Plantago purshii, Hymenopappus filifolius, and globe mallows (Sphaeralcea spp.).

DOI

doi:10.6073/pasta/5fee5a4260ad2e8848e24dce87c12efa

Permanent URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/5fee5a4260ad2e8848e24dce87c12efa

knb-lter-sev.293.155436-metadata.html (85 kB)
Show full metadata

knb-lter-sev.293.155436-provenance.xml (3 kB)
Show provenance metadata

knb-lter-sev.293.155436-report.html (27 kB)
Show original LTER Network Data Portal ingest report

sev293_nutnetbiomass_20150325.txt (77 kB)
Data in TXT format

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