Construction of a Laboratory for Belowground Studies at Konza Prairie

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Konza Prairie is a 3487 hectare tallgrass prairie laboratory located about 10 km south of Kansas State University. This site is a Man and the Biosphere preserve, an Ecological Experimental Reserve and a Long-Term Ecological Research facility. Konza rairie was also selected as the site of the first field experiment for the NASA-sponsored International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project. A large and increasing portion of current and pending research at the Prairie is focused on roots, on soil microbes and chemistry, on the growth, demography and life histories of underground plant parts, and on buried seed and rhizome pool dynamics. Samples of soils and vegetation presently must be transported and processed at Kansas State University because adequate on-site laboratory facilities are not available at the Prairie. This project will provide funds to remodel a building at Konza Prairie to house a modern and much-needed belowground studies laboratory. This addition will greatly facilitate research on belowground processes, will provide on-site laboratory facilities for visiting scientists, will expand the site's ability to sample and process large quantities of soil, soil fauna and underground plant parts, and will allow the sampling and processing of prairie soil during periods when climatic conditions otherwise would prohibit field-processing of such samples.