The SGS LTER project represents the continuing development
of a research tradition that began with the US/IBP Grassland Biome project in the late
1960's, the time at which ecosystem science was formally recognized as a sub-discipline in
ecology. Research at the CPER over the past 20 years has had an important interactive
relationship with the development of ecosystem science. The Grassland Biome project
focused on the issue of productivity of natural ecosystems. Grasslands were conceptualized
as homogeneous entities, appropriately described by an average square meter. The
transition from the IBP project in the early 1970's to the LTER project in the early
1980's involved a change in thinking about the importance of spatial variability.
Our involvement in the LTER program (LTER I 1982-1986) began with spatially explicit ideas and questions about the importance of landscape structure, particularly the classic soil catena model, in the long-term development and maintenance of shortgrass steppe ecosystems. In the second phase of the project (LTER II 1987-1990) we expanded our concept of long-term processes to include the origin and persistence of spatial patterns at a range of spatial scales (Fig 1). This work included substantial questioning of the generality of the catena model at the CPER and in the shortgrass steppe region. Our work for LTER III builds upon LTER I and II and expands the depth of our investigations into interactions between spatial and temporal patterns in ecosystem structure and function. LTER IV will add new dimensions by focusing on: the keystone species prairie dogs and plains prickly pear, population genetics of Bouteloua gracilis, and atmosphere-biosphere interactions.
02/08/01