LTREB Renewal: Long-term studies of secondary succession and community assembly in the prairie-forest ecotone of eastern Kansas

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Long-term studies are increasingly valuable as a means to evaluate and predict the responses of ecosystems to multiple global changes. This research program employs two long-term field experiments in Kansas grassland to evaluate the interplay of soil fertility, plant species interactions and regional processes governing the recovery of vegetation, biodiversity and ecosystem function on abandoned agricultural lands. Results from these long-term experiments will continue to yield basic insights into the dynamics and functioning of ecological communities following disturbance and in response to excess nutrients. The results will also inform the management, conservation and restoration of native grasslands. The project will continue to contribute to the development of the University of Kansas Field Station (KUFS), complement ongoing research at KUFS in grassland and restoration ecology, and support the education and training of graduate, undergraduate and high school students.These long-term experiments involve the manipulation of soil nutrient availability via fertilization and employ multi-species propagule additions to evaluate the contribution of plant propagule availability in the regulation of plant community and ecosystem dynamics. Experiment 1 involves factorial manipulations of soil Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) and was established on a site that was plowed prior to the initiation of the study, permitting examination of plant community assembly in the context of secondary succession initiated on bare soil. Experiment 2 involves factorial manipulations of N and annual haying. This experiment parallels Experiment 1 with manipulations of soil resources and propagule pools, but does so with different initial conditions and in the context of hay management and prairie hay meadow restoration. Together these complementary experiments address a range of questions and hypotheses in community ecology emerging from six related themes that will continue to guide research: 1) species coexistence and diversity; 2) patterns and mechanisms of ecological succession; 3) community assembly and meta-community dynamics; 4) linkage between community structure and ecosystem function; 5) grassland restoration and management; 6) collaborative research in community and ecosystem ecology. Continued sampling of both experiments for another five years will extend the core data sets (plant species abundances and productivity data) to a 21-year time series and permit comprehensive syntheses of vegetation dynamics over two-decades.