Central Plains Domain

The Central Plains Domain is a patchwork that includes parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The candidate core site is the Central Plains Experimental Range in the Colorado Piedmont section of the Great Plains. The site features short grass steppe vegetation, is owned by the US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), and has been managed as both a USDA-ARS field station and a Long-Term Ecological Research site. The research emphasis for NEON in the region is on climate and land use, with a special focus on urban-to-rural and urban-to-agricultural transitions. The Central Plains Experimental Range serves as a testbed for the NEON organism collection program.

Domain: Central Plains (Domain #10)

Science Focus: Land use and climate change.

Candidate Core Site Name: Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER)

Representativeness: The predominant ecosystem-type at the CPER is C4-dominated native shortgrass steppe, and a variety of other communities characteristic of the domain (e.g., southern mixed grass and cool season species) are also present. The climate is characterized by low precipitation, periodic water deficits, and large interannual and interseasonal climatic fluctuations. Most (70%) of the annual precipitation is derived from the Gulf of Mexico and falls during the warm season between April and September.

Location: Latitude: 40.816; Longitude: -104.749.

Existing Infrastructure: The site offers ongoing and legacy datasets, NEON-relevant infrastructure, long-term experiments, and expertise in ecological research, biodiversity, and data management.

Unique Feature: The site has been managed as a field research station by the USDA-ARS, and has been an LTER site since 1982.