Konza Prairie Biological Station features a replicated watershed-scale experiment with contrasting fire frequency and grazing treatments. Fire frequency affects plant composition and ecosystem state (i.e. whether an ecosystem is grassland, shrubland, or woodland). Fire also affects nutritional quality and quantity of vegetation, which influences foraging decisions by large herbivores at multiple scales. Herbivore choices cascade to impact grassland biodiversity via changes in dominance, a mechanism which KNZ LTER researchers found to be consistent with grasslands worldwide.
Credit: Barb Van Slyke
For Further Reading:
Raynor EJ, et al. 2015. Bison foraging responds to fire frequency in nutritionally heterogeneous grassland. Ecology. doi: 10.1890/14- 2027.1
Koerner SE, et al. 2018. Changes in dominance determine herbivore effects on plant biodiversity. Nature Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0696-y
Welti EAR, et al. 2019. Fire, grazing, and climate shape plantgrasshopper interactions in a tallgrass prairie. Functional Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.13272
