@article {KNZ002032, title = {Communities of small mammals, tallgrass prairie, and prescribed fire: a fire-reversal experiment}, journal = {Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science}, volume = {123}, year = {2020}, pages = {31 - 49}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, url = {https://bioone.org/journals/Transactions-of-the-Kansas-Academy-of-Science/volume-123/issue-1-2/062.123.0103/Communities-of-Small-Mammals-Tallgrass-Prairie-and-Prescribed-Fire/10.1660/062.123.0103.short}, author = {D.W. Kaufman and Kaufman, G.A. and Kaufman, D.M. and Reed, A.W. and Rehmeier, R.L.} } @article {KNZ001476, title = {Hispid pocket mice in tallgrass prairie: abundance, seasonal activity, habitat association, and individual attributes}, journal = {Western North American Naturalist}, volume = {72}, year = {2012}, pages = {377 -392}, abstract = {

Hispid pocket mice (Chaetodipus hispidus) are found from the grasslands of the Great Plains to the deserts of the southwestern United States, but the natural history and ecology of this species have not been described in native tallgrass prairie at the eastern edge of its range. We initiated an ongoing long-term study of small mammals on Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas (a Long-Term Ecological Research [LTER] site), in autumn 1981. Our sampling scheme for 14 LTER sites was a 20-station trapline; small mammals were sampled in autumn and spring for 30 years and in summer for a shorter period. We combined data for these sites with those from shorter studies on Konza Prairie that used traplines and trapping grids. We recorded only 96 hispid pocket mice over the 30 years of study (\>300,000 trap-nights overall). Pocket mice were more likely to be captured in autumn and summer than in spring. The earliest annual capture was on 20 March and the latest on 7 December; males emerged from torpor in spring before females, whereas females entered torpor later in autumn. Precipitation (January\—September) had a tight limiting effect on maximal number of individuals that were present in autumn. Pocket mice were more common on slope prairie than on upland or lowland prairie, but burning and grazing had no effect. Their spatiotemporal distribution showed a slightly \“anti-nested\” pattern with only weakly preferred sites and no focal years that might indicate favorable conditions. Collectively, our data suggested the presence of 3 age classes when individual body masses (no differences between males and females) were plotted against capture date. Finally, our study illustrates the importance of long-term data sets, especially in the study of uncommon to rare species.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.3398/064.072.0312}, url = {https://bioone.org/journals/Western-North-American-Naturalist/volume-72/issue-3/064.072.0312/Hispid-Pocket-Mice-in-Tallgrass-Prairie--Abundance-Seasonal-Activity/10.3398/064.072.0312.short}, author = {Kaufman, G.A. and Kaufman, D.M.} } @article {KNZ001447, title = {Abundance and spatiotemporal distribution of the non-native house mouse in native tallgrass prairie}, journal = {Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science}, volume = {114}, year = {2011}, pages = {217 -230}, abstract = {

We have sampled small mammals on the Konza Prairie Biological Station, in eastern Kansas, from autumn 1981 through the present. One part of this effort has involved sampling rodents and shrews on 14 permanent traplines (20 stations, 15-m interstation intervals and 4 consecutive nights) situated in native tallgrass prairie during each of 29 autumns and 29 springs as well as 6 summers. In these permanent sites, house mice (Mus musculus) were extremely uncommon as illustrated by average abundances of 0.023 mice/100 trap nights (TN) in autumn, 0.022 mice/100 TN in summer and 0.000 mice/100 TN in spring. Precipitation in summer influenced autumn use of tallgrass prairie by house mice; captures only occurred in autumn when precipitation was \≥300 mm in the previous summer. House mice were slightly more likely (though not significantly) to be captured in lowland than upland or hill slope prairie. The distribution of occurrence was not influenced by fire (burned or unburned) or grazing history (grazed or ungrazed). Over our total trapping efforts on Konza Prairie (sampling on the permanent traplines plus other traplines and grids), we captured only 36 house mice or about 0.01 individual/100 TN. Overall, more males (64\%) than females were captured; males, on average, were larger (14.0 g) than females (10.5 g) in body size; females typically were non-reproductive (only one of 13 was pregnant) and individuals typically were trapped only once. Captures were distributed broadly in both space and time and lacked predictability (i.e., exhibited an \“anti-nested\” distribution of captures). These and other patterns suggest that most house mice were transients in the tallgrass prairie. Distribution and abundance of house mice also imply that this introduced species is extremely uncommon and likely will never be invasive in native tallgrass prairie.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ, abundance, anti-nested distribution, body size, introduced species, Konza Prairie, limestone outcrops, Mus musculus, planted brome fields, reproduction, woodland habitats}, doi = {10.1660/062.114.0303}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1660/062.114.0303}, author = {D.W. Kaufman and Kaufman, D.M. and Kaufman, G.A.} } @article {KNZ001341, title = {Treated versus new traps: does chronic application of disinfectant to live traps reduce trappability of rodents?}, journal = {Southwestern Naturalist}, volume = {56}, year = {2011}, pages = {224 -230}, abstract = {

We examined whether chronic exposure of traps to disinfectant reduced trappability of rodents as compared to new traps. We tested whether rodents initially chose between treated (disinfected) and new traps and if total number of captures differed between these treatments. Disinfectant did not reduce catchability of traps; rodents actually preferred treated traps. In initial pair-wise choice tests, rodents overall and the predominant North American deermouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, chose significantly more treated than new traps, although this difference disappeared as time of exposure of new traps in the environment increased. Total captures of small mammals and North American deermice did not differ between treated and new traps. Therefore, treated traps were never avoided; this has important implications in general, but especially for long-term studies where censuses are conducted using pre-disinfectant and post-disinfectant protocols.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1894/F12-RTS-12.1}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1894/F12-RTS-12.1}, author = {Kaufman, G.A. and Kaufman, D.M. and D.W. Kaufman} } @article {KNZ001174, title = {Changes in grassland ecosystem function due to extreme rainfall events: implications for responses to climate change}, journal = {Global Change Biology}, volume = {14}, year = {2008}, pages = {1600 -1608}, abstract = {

Climate change is causing measurable changes in rainfall patterns, and will likely cause increases in extreme rainfall events, with uncertain implications for key processes in ecosystem function and carbon cycling. We examined how variation in rainfall total quantity (Q), the interval between rainfall events (I), and individual event size (SE) affected soil water content (SWC) and three aspects of ecosystem function: leaf photosynthetic carbon gain (inline image), aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), and soil respiration (inline image). We utilized rainout shelter-covered mesocosms (2.6 m3) containing assemblages of tallgrass prairie grasses and forbs. These were hand watered with 16 I\×Q treatment combinations, using event sizes from 4 to 53 mm. Increasing Q by 250\% (400\–1000 mm yr\−1) increased mean soil moisture and all three processes as expected, but only by 20\–55\% (P\≤0.004), suggesting diminishing returns in ecosystem function as Q increased. Increasing I (from 3 to 15 days between rainfall inputs) caused both positive (inline image) and negative (inline image) changes in ecosystem processes (20\–70\%, P\≤0.01), within and across levels of Q, indicating that I strongly influenced the effects of Q, and shifted the system towards increased net carbon uptake. Variation in SE at shorter I produced greater response in soil moisture and ecosystem processes than did variation in SE at longer I, suggesting greater stability in ecosystem function at longer I and a priming effect at shorter I. Significant differences in ANPP and inline image between treatments differing in I and Q but sharing the same SE showed that the prevailing pattern of rainfall influenced the responses to a given event size. Grassland ecosystem responses to extreme rainfall patterns expected with climate change are, therefore, likely to be variable, depending on how I, Q, and SE combine, but will likely result in changes in ecosystem carbon cycling.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01605.x}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01605.x}, author = {Fay, P.A. and Kaufman, D.M. and Jesse B. Nippert and Carlisle, J.D. and Harper, C.W.} } @article {KNZ001016, title = {A comparison of the species-timerelationship across ecosystems and taxonomic groups}, journal = {Oikos}, volume = {112}, year = {2006}, pages = {185 -195}, abstract = {The species{\textendash}time relationship (STR) describes how the species richness of a community increases with the time span over which the community is observed. This pattern has numerous implications for both theory and conservation in much the same way as the species{\textendash}area relationship (SAR). However, the STR has received much less attention and to date only a handful of papers have been published on the pattern. Here we gather together 984 community time-series, representing 15 study areas and nine taxonomic groups, and evaluate their STRs in order to assess the generality of the STR, its consistency across ecosystems and taxonomic groups, its functional form, and its relationship to local species richness. In general, STRs were surprisingly similar across major taxonomic groups and ecosystem types. STRs tended to be well fit by both power and logarithmic functions, and power function exponents typically ranged between 0.2 and 0.4. Communities with high richness tended to have lower STR exponents, suggesting that factors increasing richness may simultaneously decrease turnover in ecological systems. Our results suggest that the STR is as fundamental an ecological pattern as the SAR, and raise questions about the general processes underlying this pattern. They also highlight the dynamic nature of most species assemblages, and the need to incorporate time scale in both basic and applied research on species richness patterns.}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/j.0030-1299.2006.14223.x}, author = {White, E.P. and P. Adler and Lauenroth, W.K. and Gill, R.A. and Greenberg, D. and Kaufman, D.M. and Rassweiler, A. and Rusak, J.A. and M. A. Smith and Steinbeck, J. and Waide, R.B. and Yao, J.} } @article {KNZ001008, title = {Evidence for a general species-time-area relationship}, journal = {Ecology}, volume = {86}, year = {2005}, pages = {2032 -2039}, abstract = {The species{\textendash}area relationship (SAR) plays a central role in biodiversity research, and recent work has increased awareness of its temporal analogue, the species{\textendash} time relationship (STR). Here we provide evidence for a general species{\textendash}time{\textendash}area relationship (STAR), in which species number is a function of the area and time span of sampling, as well as their interaction. For eight assemblages, ranging from lake zooplankton to desert rodents, this model outperformed a sampling-based model and two simpler models in which area and time had independent effects. In every case, the interaction term was negative, meaning that rates of species accumulation in space decreased with the time span of sampling, while species accumulation rates in time decreased with area sampled. Although questions remain about its precise functional form, the STAR provides a tool for scaling species richness across time and space, for comparing the relative rates of species turnover in space and time at different scales of sampling, and for rigorous testing of mechanisms proposed to drive community dynamics. Our results show that the SAR and STR are not separate relationships but two dimensions of one unified pattern.}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1890/05-0067}, author = {P. Adler and White, E.P. and Lauenroth, W.K. and Kaufman, D.M. and Rassweiler, A. and Rusak, J.A.} } @inbook {KNZ00738, title = {Faunal structure of small mammals in tallgrass prairie: an evaluation of richness and spatiotemporal nestedness}, booktitle = {Reflections of a Naturalist: Papers Honoring Professor Eugene D. Fleharty}, year = {2000}, pages = {47 -70}, publisher = {Fort Hays State University}, organization = {Fort Hays State University}, address = {Hays, KS}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ, tallgrass prairie}, author = {Kaufman, D.M. and Kaufman, G.A. and D.W. Kaufman}, editor = {Choate, J.R.} } @phdthesis {KNZ00647, title = {The structure of mammalian faunas in the New World: from continents to communities}, volume = {PhD Dissertation}, year = {1998}, pages = {1 -130}, school = {University of New Mexico}, type = {Ph.D. Thesis}, address = {Albuquerque, NM}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, author = {Kaufman, D.M.} } @article {KNZ00365, title = {Geographic variation in length of tail of white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) in Kansas}, journal = {Journal of Mammalogy}, volume = {73}, year = {1992}, pages = {789 -793}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.2307/1382196~}, author = {Kaufman, D.M. and D.W. Kaufman} } @article {KNZ0062, title = {Size preference for novel objects by the eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana) under field conditions}, journal = {Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science}, volume = {87}, year = {1984}, pages = {129 -131}, abstract = {

Natural objects such as branches, leaves, bones and rocks are used in the construction and maintenance of houses by eastern woodrats. Woodrats also use novel items, e.g. pieces of metal, introduced into their home ranges. Ireland and Hays (1969) took advantage of this tendency and examined home range size from observations of the use of number tinfoil balls by woodrats. We examined the use of novel items, aluminum foil balls, plased in areas used by woodrats under field conditions to answer two general questions: 1) Do woodrats exhibit a size preference for novel items? 2) Does preference vary with distance between the house or burrow and the available items?

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ, rodent, woodrat}, doi = {10.2307/3627848}, author = {Kaufman, D.M. and D.W. Kaufman} }