Long-Term Ecological Research on Colorado Shortgrass Steppe

The Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological research (SGS-LTER) project is entering its final year of a more than 30-year history (1982-2014) of research and engagement within the LTER network.  During this transition we are simultaneously bringing closure to several of our experiments and expanding our infrastructure in the field to position our community of scientists for future work.  New initiatives and infrastructure include the following:  1) a common garden experiment to assess the genetic plasticity and response of the dominant grass species, Bouteloua gracilis, to climate change.  Field collections were made for our common garden experiment in 2011 and representative plants will be installed at the new SGS Research and Interpretation Center garden this fall; 2) A new grazing experiment designed to investigate the response of shortgrass steppe plant communities (e.g., species composition and abundance) to changing climate and grazer populations; and 3) New rainout shelters to understand more fully responses of the plant and microbial communities to changes in rainfall frequency and abundance.  In addition to new science initiatives, our information management team is creating an extensive digital archive of our experimental data and metadata collected during our tenure with the LTER Network, but also undertaking an ambitious effort to capture the history of how and why experimental protocols have changed.