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Research Project:
GLOBAL CHANGE AND THE CARBON CYCLE ON WESTERN RANGELANDS
Location:
Grassland Protection Research
Project Number: 6206-11220-004-00
Project Type:
Appropriated
Start Date: Oct 14, 2004
End Date: Oct 13, 2009
Objective:
Determine how two manifestations of global change, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment and reduced precipitation during summer, interact with regionally important differences in soil type to affect plant production and other components of the carbon (C) cycle on tallgrass prairie. Determine how history of cultivation and density and biomass of invasive woody plants affects the vertical distribution and sizes of pools of organic C in mesic grasslands. Determine whether climate change (temperature, precipitation) effects on net ecosystem exchange of C (NEE) from western rangelands may creditably be predicted from the response of NEE to seasonal and inter-annual variation in temperature and precipitation.
Approach:
Expose vegetated monoliths of three soil types to a continuous gradient in atmospheric carbon dioxide ranging from low levels of the pre-industrial period to elevated concentrations predicted within the century. Measure plant carbon and changes in soil organic carbon content on never-plowed tallgrass prairie and on four previously cultivated grassland sites following 15 years with different densities of the shrub honey mesquite. Use continuous measurements of carbon dioxide fluxes at each of eight rangeland sites in the western U.S. to quantify relationships between net ecosystem exchange of carbon and precipitation and temperature at seasonal and inter-annual scales.
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