SGS-LTER Effects of water and nitrogen additions on carbon and nitrogen in shortgrass ecosystems on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1997-2011, ARS Study Number 143

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. The objective of this research is to evaluate the long-term response of shortgrass ecosystems to additional water and nitrogen inputs. An experiment was conducted during the IBP project (1970-1975) in which water and nitrogen were applied (Lauenroth et al. 1978, Dodd and Lauenroth 1979, Milchunas and Lauenroth 1995). While we gained an enormous increment in our knowledge about shortgrass ecosystems from this experiment it raised as many questions as it answered. One of the problems was that the treatments were very high levels of nitrogen (100-150kg/ha N) and water (600 mm/growing season) additions. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/85629.