Research theme.   The intellectual focus of the REU program at Konza Prairie is the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of a Temperate Grassland.  A better understanding of the biology of temperate grasslands is essential to the management of these endangered ecosystems. The primary goal of ecological studies at Konza Prairie is to examine the roles of fire, grazing and climatic variability as interacting environmental factors that shape the structure and function of terrestrial and aquatic habitats in mesic grasslands.  Related questions in evolutionary biology include studies of the coevolution of grassland plants and their fungal symbionts, evolution of life history strategies in grassland organisms, and their potential evolutionary responses to global environmental change. The natural history of Konza Prairie is well known, with annotated species lists for vascular plants, butterflies, grasshoppers, birds, and mammals.  Unfortunately, temperate grasslands have been heavily impacted by habitat destruction and changing land use practices, with detrimental effects on the associated flora and fauna.  Konza Prairie protects significant natural resources including stable populations of rare insects (e.g., regal fritillary Speyeria idalia, Konza mayfly Leptophlebia konzii), and threatened birds.  Research findings are disseminated to the public and to K-12 students by the Konza Environmental Education Program (KEEP).  Docents-in-training with KEEP often participants in the group activities of the summer REU program.  REU projects on taxa of conservation concern will help Konza Prairie Biological Station to meet a three-fold mission of ecological research, conservation, and science education.

    Grassland Conservation.   Conservation issues are emphasized because the native grasslands of North America are endangered ecosystems that have been heavily impacted by habitat destruction and changing land use practices. Tallgrass prairie once extended from Texas to Saskatchewan in the eastern Great Plains. The fertile soils and mesic conditions of this ecosystem are highly productive and much of this region has now been converted to row-crop agriculture, hayfields and pasture. For example, 60% of Illinois was covered with native prairie in 1810-20, but < 0.01% of this habitat remains today. The largest remaining tracts of tallgrass prairie are found in the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas. The rocky soils and relatively steep slopes of the Flint Hills are unsuitable for crops, but this region supports a highly productive and economically valuable livestock grazing industry. Land-use practices in this area have changed in the past 30 years, moving to widespread spring burning and intensive early stocking of cattle. Spring burning is an important tool for rangeland management because it limits encroachment by woody shrubs and results in higher rates of primary productivity, which can increase mass gain in domestic cattle by as much as 10-38%. However, increases in both the frequency and extent of spring burning have reduced the heterogeneity and vegetative structure of grasslands in the Flint Hills, with detrimental effects on native species.

Konza Prairie Biological Station is a 3487 ha tallgrass prairie preserve located in the heart of the Flint Hills in northeastern Kansas. The station protects significant natural resources as part of its three-fold mission of conservation, ecological research and science education.  REU student projects will be conducted at Konza Prairie Biological Station and on private lands in the vicinity of this research site with permission of landowners. Konza Prairie is jointly owned by KSU and the Nature Conservancy, and is managed for ecological research by the Division of Biology. It has been a core site in the NSF funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network since 1981. The research site is subdivided into 60 experimental units or ‘watersheds’ (average size = 60 ha) that are subjected to a specific combination of prescribed burning regime (since 1972: burned at 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 or 20 year intervals) and one of three grazing treatments (since 1987: ungrazed, grazed by domestic cattle Bos taurus, or grazed by native bison Bison bison). These experimental treatments produce a mosaic of habitats that span the range of vegetative cover found in natural tallgrass prairie ecosystems. Konza Prairie has a range of research facilities including the Hulbert Center, an Ecology laboratory for processing of field samples and a researchers’ workshop. Dr. Keith Gido is currently constructing an Experimental Stream Facility, which will include a network of 24 riffle and pool units that will be available for research projects on the effects of flow dynamics of prairie streams on freshwater invertebrate and fish communities. Permanent instrumentation is extensive and includes weather stations, eddy flux towers, stream weirs, wells, a seismometer and a new CASTNet facility. Konza Prairie has field vehicles available for student use including a van dedicated to REU student transportation, four pick-ups and two jeeps. 

Long-term Ecological Research Program (LTER).  The LTER program consists of the effects of disturbance on the structure and function of the tallgrass prairie. Our research also has expanded to include studies of climate change, net carbon exchange, restoration ecology and land use/land cover change. These studies are thematically linked via an overarching theme that explicitly includes a non-equilibrium perspective on ecological patterns and processes in this grassland, and which addresses the major abiotic and biotic factors influencing this ecosystem. Our central hypothesis is that fire, grazing and climatic variability are essential and interactive factors responsible for the structure and dynamics of tallgrass prairie. In contrast to many other grasslands where ecological processes are constrained by chronic limitations of a single resource (e.g., water), organismic to ecosystem processes and dynamics in tallgrass prairie are products of spatial and temporal variability in multiple limiting resources (water, light, N). Variability in, and switching among, these primary limiting resource(s) are caused by both extant and historical fire, grazing and climatic regimes. Moreover, responses to these factors are strongly dependent on topographic and landscape position. As a result of this complexity, and because grazing and fire regimes are managed in grassland systems worldwide, data from the Konza Prairie LTER program have relevance not only for understanding this grassland, but for broader ecological issues such as stability-diversity questions and interactions among land-use, biodiversity and climate change.  Long-term datasets from the LTER program are available to REU students and could provide context for individual research projects.

Grassland Plants and Invasive Species.  The known vascular flora of Konza Prairie consists of 576 species of plants but none of these species are currently listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Nonetheless, it is widely recognized that the plant community comprising the tallgrass prairie ecosystem is highly threatened and in need of conservation. One major threat to tallgrass prairie is invasion by non-native species of plants. The flora of Konza Prairie contains at least 96 species of non-native naturalized plants (16.7% of the total). Four species of plants have been targeted for eradication because they are invaders known to displace native vegetation: musk-thistle Carduus nutans (Magnoliopsida: Asteraceae), sericea lespedeza Lespedeza cuneata (Magnoliopsida: Fabaceae), Caucasian bluestem Botriochola bladhii (Liliopsida: Poaceae), and Turkestan bluestem B. ischaemum.

Animals of Conservation Concern.  At least three insects of conservation importance occur at Konza Prairie. The regal fritillary Speyeria idalia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) is a large univoltine butterfly which is closely associated with virgin tallgrass prairie. This species has been extirpated from eastern parts of its historic range and only two relict populations persist east of Illinois. Widespread population declines have prompted consideration for endangered species status, but S. idalia is still fairly common in areas of suitable habitat and is one of the most abundant butterflies in upland areas of Konza Prairie. The American burying beetle Nicrophous americanus (Coleoptera: Silphidae) is a carrion beetle found in tallgrass prairie which was federally listed as an endangered species in 1989. It has disappeared from over 90% of its historic range and remaining populations are located in Nebraska and Oklahoma. N. americanus presumably occurs at Konza Prairie but has not been detected in recent sampling attempts by REU students. Finally, Konza Prairie is home to one endemic species of insect, the mayfly Leptophlebia konzii (Ephemoptera: Leptophlebiidae). This species was first described from collections at Konza Prairie and has not yet been detected at any other site. 
    Konza Prairie is a critical breeding area for many species of grassland birds, an avian community of conservation concern in much of North America. Survey data from the Breeding Bird Survey program (1966 to 1996) has revealed substantial population declines in several species of grassland songbirds: -8.8% per year in Henslow’s Sparrow Ammodramus henslowii, -3.6% in Grasshopper Sparrow A. savannarum, -2.6% in Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna, and -1.6% in Dickcissel Spiza americana. Lek counts have shown that Greater Prairie Chickens Tympanchus cupido are declining throughout much of their remaining breeding range. Other grassland birds, such as the Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda, have undergone substantial range contractions and are now confined to the Great Plains. Remarkably, some species of conservation concern are among the most abundant birds in upland habitats at Konza Prairie: Dickcissel (14 birds per km of survey transect), Grasshopper Sparrow (8.2), Eastern Meadowlark (8.0), Upland Sandpiper (2.9) and Henslow’s Sparrow (2.8). Because of its importance for grassland birds, Konza Prairie has been designated as a Globally Important Bird Area by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI).   Konza Prairie supports healthy populations of many wildlife species including a range of amphibians and reptiles, badgers and white-tailed deer.
 

Last updated: January 2008