SGS-LTER Long-Term Monitoring Project: Vegetation Cover on Small Mammal Trapping Webs on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1999 -2006, ARS Study Number 118 (Reformatted to a Darwin Core Archive)

This data package is formatted as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A,
event core). For more information on Darwin Core see
https://www.tdwg.org/standards/dwc/. This Level 2 data package was
derived from the Level 1 data package found here: https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/edi/326/2,
which was derived from the Level 0 data package found here:
https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/knb-lter-sgs/140/17. The abstract below was extracted from the Level 0
data package and is included for context: 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 Digital Collections of
Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429).
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. Additional information and referenced materials can be found:
http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83458. The abundance and diversity of small mammals in shortgrass steppe is strongly influenced
by the structure and composition of vegetation. Vegetation structure provides cover from
predators and harsh abiotic conditions. Plant species composition affects the types of seeds
and herbaceous material available to granivores and herbivores, and influences arthropod
populations, which are important prey for the omnivorous species that dominate in shortgrass
steppe. Both vegetation structure and plant community composition are sensitive to the
availability of precipitation as well as the activity of large mammalian herbivores. In 1999,
we began measuring vegetation structure and plant community composition on the three grassland
and three shrubland trapping webs where we live-trap small mammals. Vegetation measurements are
made once each year, usually in mid-July. Percent canopy cover of each plant species was
estimated visually in 30 0.10-m2 Daubenmire quadrats on each web. To estimate habitat
structure, we measured the height of grass, forb and shrub plants adjacent to each quadrat, the
density of half-shrubs, small mammal mounds and burrows, harvester ant mounds and the
dimensions of large shrubs and animal mounds. The Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) project was funded by
National Science Foundation as one of the first sites in the US LTER Network in 1982. This
collaborative, interdisciplinary research project was established in the Natural Resource
Ecology Lab at Colorado State University by ecosystem scientists who learned novel approaches
to study grassland ecosystems during the International Biome Program (IBP) (1968-1974). The
SGS-LTER project was built upon the foundation of data and information obtained during IBP, as
scientists sought to identify and follow, and often manipulate in experiments, important
ecosystem processes over the long-term. The objectives of the SGS-LTER project were to
investigate what mechanisms regulate processes in the shortgrass steppe. Research questions
focused on how biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem are coupled, where and when
ecosystem components are most vulnerable to perturbations, disseminating information that
would be helpful for rangeland management and assessing impacts of climate change. Scientists
explored variations in the structure and function of the ecosystem over space and time and
sought to understand how these aspects are governed by climate, natural disturbance, biota,
physiography, and human use. Scientists at the SGS-LTER integrated long-term monitoring data,
designed experimental studies, performed and advanced modeling techniques, and synthesized
data to conduct innovative research, education, and outreach. The core SGS-LTER research site
was established on the Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER) in Nunn, Colorado, part of the
United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The research site
sits in the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains at the western edge of the shortgrass steppe of
North America. The shortgrass steppe ecosystem evolved with grazing by the American bison,
which has now been replaced by cattle. Grazing by domestic livestock is the primary land use
of native grassland, which occupies about 60% of the land area of the shortgrass steppe. Short
grasses dominate the vegetation community, which have adapted to grazing and less than 400 mm
of annual rainfall. The topography is characterized by gently rolling hills, broad ephemeral
stream courses and low flat-topped terraces. Aspects of physiography regulate the shortgrass
steppe ecosystem, including landscape position, soil age, water holding capacity, soil depth
and surface texture which, in turn, determine such properties as soil moisture storage, net
primary productivity and the distribution of small mammals such as prairie dogs and pocket
gophers. SGS-LTER scientists have expanded their research studies beyond the CPER to identify
similar or different patterns in ecosystem structure and function in North American
grasslands; across the Great Plains region and along the latitudinal gradient from Wyoming to
Mexico. They also conducted cross-site collaborative research and compared their results and
tested theories in grasslands located in South America, Asia and Africa. Funding from NSF for
the SGS-LTER project ends in 2014, but over thirty years of research has resulted in a
scientific team with diverse expertise, which produced over 1200 journal publications, almost
400 book chapters and over 200 theses. Data, products and other information produced from the
SGS-LTER are available through the LTER Network Information System, Digital Collections of
Colorado at CSU or upon request through [e-mail].