Authors

Stephanie Baker

Date

12-12-2013

Abstract

Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) are burrowing rodents considered to be ecosystem engineers and keystone species of the central grasslands of North America. Yet, prairie dog populations have declined by an estimated 98% throughout their historic range. This dramatic decline has resulted in the widespread loss of their important ecological role throughout this grassland system. The 92,060 ha Sevilleta NWR in central New Mexico includes more than 54,000 ha of native grassland. Gunnison’s prairie dogs (C. gunnisoni) were reported to occupy ~15,000 ha of what is now the SNWR during the 1960’s, prior to their systematic eradication. In 2010, we collaborated with local agencies and conservation organizations to restore the functional role of prairie dogs to the grassland system. Gunnison’s prairie dogs were reintroduced to a site that was occupied by prairie dogs 40 years ago.  This work is part of a larger, long-term study where we are studying the ecological effects of prairie dogs as they re-colonize the grassland ecosystem. With this project, we would like to further investigate the impact that Gunnison’s prairie dogs have on the landscape. Gunnison’s prairie dog monitoring data has been collected from the beginning of the reintroduction project, but little information has been collected on how grassland species respond to the sudden presence of prairie dogs on the refuge. This project will help determine if the prairie dog reintroduction has had positive impacts on the grassland ecosystem. Prairie dogs benefit grasslands in many ways, but their role as ecosystem engineers directly impacts other species by creating new habitat that would not be present without prairie dogs. We have documented physical landscape changes, but we have not specifically documented benefits to other grassland species. This work will help determine if the reintroduced prairie dog populations on Sevilleta NWR are now acting as a keystone species in a grassland ecosystem by monitoring small mammal populations to see if species richness, diversity, and density are different on prairie dog colonized areas versus non-colonized areas.

Handle

http://hdl.handle.net/1928/29973

Other Identifier

SEV239

Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) Identifier

knb-lter-sev.239.210385

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/219d04632a4e2e085a5ae6c12372fdb1, and may be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/219d04632a4e2e085a5ae6c12372fdb1. 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/219d04632a4e2e085a5ae6c12372fdb1

Temporal coverage

2013-12-12 - 2014-06-27

Spatial coverage

The study area is about 655 ha (~2.5 sq mi) in size and approximately 1 km due west from the foothills of the Los Pinos Mountains. The study is also just north of the Blue Grama Core Site.The center of plot B is: -106.628 34.333The center of plot D is: -106.636 34.324

DOI

doi:10.6073/pasta/219d04632a4e2e085a5ae6c12372fdb1

Permanent URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/219d04632a4e2e085a5ae6c12372fdb1

knb-lter-sev.239.210385-metadata.html (158 kB)
Show full metadata

knb-lter-sev.239.210385-provenance.xml (3 kB)
Show provenance metadata

knb-lter-sev.239.210385-report.html (25 kB)
Show original LTER Network Data Portal ingest report

sev239_REUrodenttrapping_20140605.txt (54 kB)
Data in TXT format

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