John M. Blair Division of Biology Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 66506-4901 785-532-7065 jblair@ksu.edu
Leonard Krishtalka Biodiversity Institute and Dept. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66045-7561 785-864-4540 krishtalka@ku.edu
We recommend the Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) as the Core Wildland site (KNZ) in the Prairie Peninsula Domain (Domain 6). KPBS is a 3,487-ha (8,617 acres) native tallgrass prairie site located in the Flint Hills region of northeastern Kansas (39.08 latitude, -96.58 longitude). The site is jointly owned by Kansas State University and The Nature Conservancy, has been managed as a field research station by the KSU Division of Biology since 1972, and has been a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site since 1981 (one of 6 original sites). KPBS captures the essential climatic and biotic characteristics of the Prairie Peninsula domain. KPBS is a C4-dominated native grassland with a continental climate characterized by warm, wet summers and dry, cold winters. The mean and range of annual precipitation and temperature are well within the extremes that bracket climate in this domain. The vegetation is primarily (>90%) native tallgrass prairie, but includes a variety of other communities characteristic of the domain (e.g., shrublands, deciduous forest). The site also includes four low-order grassland streams with weirs, a USGS benchmark monitoring station, and groundwater wells for hydrologic studies. KPBS is uniquely positioned and equipped to serve as a Core Wildland site, with its critical ongoing and legacy datasets, NEON-relevant infrastructure, long-term experiments, and faculty expertise in ecological research, biodiversity and data management. Partnerships among Kansas State University, the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University will provide strong operational support for the site, while partnerships with proposed gradient sites (Fig. 1) and scientists at Iowa State University, Southern Illinois University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin provide strong regional support for the choice of KNZ within Domain 6. The choice of Konza Prairie also builds on the infrastructure and partnerships developed with support from a recent NSF EPSCoR grant (Understanding and Forecasting Ecological Change) and provides a tallgrass prairie site that will contribute to a subcontinental Central US grasslands observatory that spans four domains (6, 9, 10 and 11) and incorporates native vegetation types characteristic of the range of climatic conditions across the Central US.