cattle – Field Talk /fieldtalk audio interviews take you into the field with ecologists Wed, 18 Dec 2013 00:20:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 Tallgrass prairie: the invasion of the woody shrubs /fieldtalk/tallgrass-prairie-the-invasion-of-the-woody-shrubs/ /fieldtalk/tallgrass-prairie-the-invasion-of-the-woody-shrubs/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:04:08 +0000 /fieldtalk/?p=224 … Read more ›]]> Kansas native Jesse Nippert loves the prairie. He spends much of his time immersed in the tall grass as an assistant professor at Kansas State University. Though agriculture has vastly changed the plains of North America, pockets of tall grass remain on rangeland and preserves. But the remaining tallgrass prairie, like grasslands all over the world, is changing as well, becoming, in many places, scrubland. The change is a problem for ranchers and an absorbing mystery for grassland ecologists. Jesse explains indications of positive feedbacks promoting the creeping spread of woody shrubs into the tallgrass prairie, from his paper in the November edition of Ecosphere, ESA’s new online-only, open-access journal.

Learn more about tallgrass prairie, C4 grasses, and the Konza Long Term Ecological Research site in the accompanying post on ESA’s blog, Ecotone.

]]> /fieldtalk/tallgrass-prairie-the-invasion-of-the-woody-shrubs/feed/ 1 Fruitful Savannahs: Termites enrich the soil in East Africa /fieldtalk/fruitful-savannahs-termites-enrich-the-soil-in-east-africa/ /fieldtalk/fruitful-savannahs-termites-enrich-the-soil-in-east-africa/#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:56:11 +0000 /fieldtalk/?p=194 … Read more ›]]> Alison Brody from the University of Vermont Vertebrate fertilizer is not the only source of nutrients in the soils of East African savannahs, at least according to a study recently published in the journal Ecology. Alison Brody from the University of Vermont and colleagues found that termites actually had more of an effect on the fruiting success of Acacia trees in Kenya than did dung and urine deposition from ungulate herbivores, such as zebras and gazelles. The underground termite mounds, covered in vegetation and ranging from 5-10 meters in size, increased nitrogen and other nutrients in the soil—significantly more so than ungulates typically provided. In this edition of Field Talk, Brody talks about the symbiotic relationships these Acacia trees have with vertebrates and invertebrates, her plans for future research on the effects of cattle grazing on this land and her experiences in the field with the Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment.

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