This Data Set allows students to use long-term data from Konza to explore the relationships between multiple characteristics of a tallgrass prairie ecosystem and the productivity of prairie plants. Specifically, students compare the interactive effects of fire frequency, topography, and inter-annual variation in precipitation on the productivity of two major plant groups (grasses and forbs). To...
This Issue focuses on a research article by Turner et al. (2003) that was published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The article discusses the ecological causes and effects of intense, infrequent fires such as the large fire that occurred during 1988 in Yellowstone National Park. Turner et al. synthesize 15 years of research on vegetation and ecological processes at Yellowstone and...
This game introduces students to the concept of succession and plant community dynamics. Students learn that plant communities are dynamic (they change over time and space), and that these changes result from interactions between plants and biotic and abiotic aspects of their environments, as well as random events. Students play a board game in which each student represents an imaginary plant...
A photo of the Menindee Lakes in arid Australia depicts floodplain eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus largiflorens) that were killed by prolonged flooding after the lakes were made into storage reservoirs for irrigation and drinking. A recent study of Australian lakes found that when lakes in floodplains are made into reservoirs, greatly reducing the fluctuations in water level, the biodiversity of...
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