The 30th Annual Konza Prairie LTER Workshop

The 30th annual Konza Prairie LTER workshop was held on May 31, 2022 at Prairie Biological Station in the Cortelyou Lecture Hall. Over 40 participants attended the workshop. The day was filled with informative talks and a poster session consisting of 11 posters.

  1. Jesse Nippert (KSU) – Welcome and update on KNZ LTER VIII                  
  2. Kevin Wilcox (Wyoming) – Testing fire, drought, and rising atmospheric CO2 as drivers of shrub encroachment using a mechanistic model
  3. Kimberly Komatsu (Smithsonian) – Initial insights from the Consumer Size Manipulation Experiment (conSME)
  4. Matthew Nieland (KSU) – Burning decreases tallgrass prairie sensitivity, and increases resilience, to chronic supplemental nitrogen
  5. Bess Bookout (KSU) – Bison wallows bolster plant diversity in tallgrass prairie
  6. Meghan Avolio (Johns Hopkins) – Five years of ghost fire: the impact of experimentally manipulated litter and soil nitrogen on tallgrass prairie
  7. Anna Krause (KU) – Environmental heterogeneity affects the timing and variability of big bluestem phenology
  8. Rachel Keen (KSU) – Physiological responses of woody-encroached grassland communities to multi-year drought and fire
  9. Sarah Herzog (KSU) – Examining how rarity impacts grassland species’ ability to shift ranges in response to climate change
  10. Katie Eckhoff (KU) – Insights from experimental drought reveal generalizable effects of drought on restored community structure and function
  11. Zak Ratajczak (KSU) – How does reintroducing bison affect grassland resilience to changing climate and fire?
  12. Melinda Smith (CSU) – Konza musings: thoughts on new experiments and synthesis activities
  13. John Blair (KSU)  –Current and future research in the Irrigation Transect Experiment
  14. Alan Knapp (CSU) – And now for something completely different – Agrivoltaics in Grasslands
  15. Meghan Avolio (Johns Hopkins) – KNZ LTER Climate Survey
  • List Posters:
  1. Joshua Ajowele (Wyoming) – Assessing the impact of landscape heterogeneity on stability and biodiversity
  2. Christa Anhold (KSU) – Impacts of wood encroachment on groundwater quality and residence time
  3. Maddie Ball (KSU), Thomas Leihsing (KSU), Natalie Miller (KSU) – Northern Cardinals increase fat in response to adverse weather conditions
  4. Hannah Dea (KSU) – Prairie restoration impact on Schizachyrium scoparium leaf and root microbial communities
  5. Victoria Gaa (KSU), Jacob Riggs (KSU), Hannah Welco (KSU) – Why does apparent survival differ among wintering songbirds?
  6. Sarah Gora (UNCG) – Belowground traits lack response to chronic nitrogen additions
  7. Shahla Mohammadi (KSU) – Metabolomic profiling in Panicum virgatum and Andropogon gerardii under environmental conditions
  8. Camden Hatley (KSU) – Intermittent streamflow generation in a merokarst headwater catchment
  9. Alex Siggers (CSU) – The long-term recovery of tallgrass prairie communities following the removal of two dominant species, Andropogon gerardii & Sorghastrum nutans
  10. Rose Terry (UNCG) – Grazing reversals and global change: repurposing old infrastructure for a new experiment
  11. Emily Wedel (KSU) – What traits drive encroachment of woody shrubs in tallgrass prairie?