@article {KNZ00841,
	title = {Influence of climate variability on plant production and N-mineralization in Central US grasslands},
	journal = {Journal of Vegetation Science},
	volume = {13},
	year = {2002},
	pages = {383 -394},
	abstract = {We assessed the influence of annual and seasonal climate variability over soil organic matter (SOM), above-ground net primary production (ANPP) and in situ net nitrogen (N) mineralization in a regional field study across the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) North American mid-latitude transect (Koch et al. 1995). We hypothesized that while trends in SOM are strongly correlated with mean climatic parameters, ANPP and net N-mineralization are more strongly influenced by annual and seasonal climate because they are dynamic processes sensitive to short-term variation in temperature and water availability. Seasonal and monthly deviations from long-term climatic means, particularly precipitation, were greatest at the semi-arid end of the transect. ANPP is sensitive to this climatic variability, but is also strongly correlated with mean annual climate parameters. In situ net N-mineralization and nitrification were weakly influenced by soil water content and temperature during the incubation and were less sensitive to seasonal climatic variables than ANPP, probably because microbial transformations of N in the soil are mediated over even finer temporal scales. We found no relationship between ANPP and in situ net N-mineralization. These results suggests that methods used to estimate in situ net N-mineralization are inadequate to represent N-availability across gradients where microbial biomass, N-immobilization or competition among plants and microbes vary.},
	keywords = {LTER-KNZ, Annual variation, ANPP, Central Grasslands region, Environmental gradient, IGBP Transect, Mineralization, Nitrogen flux, Seasonal variation},
	doi = {10.1111/j.1654-1103.2002.tb02062.x},
	author = {Barrett, J.E. and McCulley, R.L. and Lane, D.R. and Burke, I.C. and Lauenroth, W.K.}
}
