Modeling small-scale spatial interaction of shortgrass prairie species

Modeling small-scale spatial interaction of shortgrass prairie species

Native grasses interact spatially with themselves and their environment and can therefore be thought of as a system of dependent random variables. One method of modeling the spatial dependence of a multi-species population is a Gibbsian pairwise potential model. Since natural selection operates at the level of individual plants, the information obtained from such a model should provide a greate...

Vegetation of Prairie Dog Colonies and Non-Colonized Shortgrass Prairie

Black-tailed prairie dogs have declined by 98% in the past century. Due to continued declines, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the species as a candidate for listing in 2000. Prairie dogs foster both plant and animal diversity, and their continued presence is a concern in the Great Plains. We compared vegetation structure and composition of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludov...

Effects of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs on Reptiles and Amphibians in Kansas Shortgrass Prairie

Species diversity and abundance of reptiles and amphibians were measured on and off black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies to determine the extent to which herpetological species composition in a shortgrass prairie ecosystem is affected by presence of blacktailed prairie dog colonies. Ten species of reptiles and 3 species of amphibians were captured. Total amphibian and reptil...

Breeding Season Avifauna of Prairie Dog Colonies and Non-Colonized Areas in Shortgrass Prairie

Vascular Plant Communities Associated with Black-tailed Prairie Dog Colonies in Southern Shortgrass Prairie

The black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus), a large burrowing rodent found in grasslands of the western Great Plains, once occurred over approximately 40 million ha before European settlement (13). Prairie dogs (C. ludovicianus, C. leucurus, C. gunnisoni, and C. parvidens) covered approximately 283 million ha in the late 1800s Vascular Plant Communities Associated with Black-tailed Pra...