Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe: A Long-Term Perspective

ISBN-13: 9780195135824 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 536 str.

W. K. Lauenroth; I. C. Burke

Opis

Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe: A Long-Term Perspective summarizes and synthesizes more than sixty years of research that has been conducted throughout the shortgrass region in North America. The shortgrass steppe was an important focus of the International Biological Program's Grassland Biome project, which ran from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. The work conducted by the Grassland Biome project was preceded by almost forty years of research by U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers-primarily from the Agricultural Research Service-and was followed by the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research project. This volume is an enormously rich source of data and insight into the structure and function of a semiarid grassland.

Recenzje

Much of what we know about grasslands stems from over 40 years of research at the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research station, which is complied in this volume by 34 authors. Moving beyond important early chapters that provide descriptive context for the shortgrass steppe, several contributions provide a deep population-level understanding of how the dominant grass, Bouteloua gracilis responds to disturbance and environmental drivers.

O autorze

William Lauenroth is Professor in the department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship at Colorado State University. Ingrid Burke is Professor in the department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship at Colorado State University, as well as the Co-Director of the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. She received her BS at Middlebury College in 1980, and her PhD in Botany at the University of Wyoming in 1987.