Welcome to the Shortgrass Steppe (SGS) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project.  SGS LTER is one of 26 sites in the national network of LTER sites supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  We are privileged to have close working ties with the USDA Agricultural Research Services Great Plains Rangeland Resources Research Unit, the USFS Pawnee National Grassland Ranger District, and the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES), that allow for easy transfer of ideas, data, technology and expertise.

We welcome VISITORS to our field station and research sites.  Information for arranging a visit to the SGS LTER can be found on our Visitor Information page.

If you are considering conducting RESEARCH on the shortgrass steppe, information can be found on our page for Researchers.

The SGS LTER site encompasses a large portion of the Colorado Piedmont Section of the western Great Plains. The extent is defined as the boundaries of the Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER), which is managed by the Agricultural Research Service  (ARS), and the Pawnee National Grassland (PNG), which is managed by the U. S. Forest Service.  This expansion has allowed us to explore the biotic interactions of the SGS ecosystem across a broad range of climatic, geologic, topographic and chronological conditions. Soils of the PNG are dominantly Aridic Argiustolls and Ustic Haplargids formed in alluvium, wind-reworked alluvium and loess.  Ustic Torriorthents and Ustic Torrifluvents occur in areas of more recent alluvial and eolian activity, particularly along modern drainages. The PNG is characterized by having a great deal of interspersed land that is either privately or state-owned. This varied land use and cultural diversity associated with land users, land managers, as well as state, local and federal agencies substantiates the importance of our ecological research program to the region and ecological community as a whole. 

Research on the SGS LTER is conducted by scientists at Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service, in close cooperation with the US Forest Service Pawnee National Grasslands Ranger Districts.

Now you can see panoramic views of our research site and listen to scientists talk about our research at http://intranet.lternet.edu/archives/multimedia/

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement #DEB-0217631.  Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.