Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “grassland ecology”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4

Contribution of Tibetan Plateau ecosystems to local and remote precipitation through moisture recycling

The ecosystems of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) provide multiple important ecosystem services that benefit both local populations and those beyond, such as through climate regulation services on precipitation for East Asia and China. However, the precipitation regulation service of the TP ecosystems for supplying moisture and maintaining precipitation is yet to be evaluated. In this study, we used the moisture recycling framework and a moisture tracking model to quantify the precipitation regulation services of TP ecosystems for their contribution to precipitation. We found TP ecosystems contributed substantially to local and downwind precipitation, with a declined contribution from 221 mm/year for the TP and neighboring areas, to <10 mm/year for eastern China and other surrounding countries. Among ecosystem types, grassland contributed most to precipitation, followed by barren and snow lands, forests, and shrublands. In terms of seasonality, precipitation contribution from TP ecosystems was greater in summer months than in non-summer months for western China, while the opposite was true for eastern China – though the magnitude was much smaller. Over the past two decades, the significant evapotranspiration increases in TP translated to a widespread increase in precipitation contribution for TP and downwind beneficiary regions from 2000 to 2020. Our study provides a quantitative way to understand the precipitation regulation services of TP ecosystems through moisture recycling, substantiating their key role to safeguard precipitation and the water cycle for downwind regions– effectively acting as an ecological security shelter that could be perceived by the public.

Li, Yan↗

Soil enzymes as indicators of soil function: A step toward greater realism in microbial ecological modeling

Soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles and their complex responses to environmental changes have received increasing attention. However, large uncertainties in model predictions remain, partially due to the lack of explicit representation and parameterization of microbial processes. One great challenge is to effectively integrate rich microbial functional traits into ecosystem modeling for better predictions. Here, using soil enzymes as indicators of soil function, we developed a competitive dynamic enzyme allocation scheme and detailed enzyme-mediated soil inorganic N processes in the Microbial-ENzyme Decomposition (MEND) model. We conducted a rigorous calibration and validation of MEND with diverse soil C-N fluxes, microbial C:N ratios, and functional gene abundances from a 12-year CO 2 × N grassland experiment (BioCON) in Minnesota, USA. In addition to accurately simulating soil CO 2 fluxes and multiple N variables, the model correctly predicted microbial C:N ratios and their negative response to enriched N supply. Model validation further showed that, compared to the changes in simulated enzyme concentrations and decomposition rates, the changes in simulated activities of eight C-N-associated enzymes were better explained by the measured gene abundances in responses to elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentration. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that using enzymes as indicators of soil function and validating model predictions with functional gene abundances in ecosystem modeling can provide a basis for testing hypotheses about microbially mediated biogeochemical processes in response to environmental changes. Further development and applications of the modeling framework presented here will enable microbial ecologists to address ecosystem-level questions beyond empirical observations, toward more predictive understanding, an ultimate goal of microbial ecology.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Methane production and consumption in grassland and boreal ecosystems

The objectives of the this project were to develop a mechanistic understanding of methane production and oxidation suitable for incorporation into spatially explicit models for spatial extrapolation. Field studies were undertaken in Minnesota, Canada, and Colorado to explore the process controls over the two microbial mediated methane transformations in a range of environments. Field measurements were done in conjunction with ongoing studies in Canada (the Canadian Northern Wetlands Projects: NOWES) and in Colorado (The Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research Project: LTER). One of the central hypotheses of the proposal was that methane production should be substrate limited, as well as being controlled by physical variables influencing microbial activity (temperature, oxidation status, and pH). Laboratory studies of peats from Canada and Minnesota (Northern and Southern Boreal) were conducted with amendments of a methanogenic substrate at multiple temperatures and at multiple pHs (the latter by titrating samples). The studies showed control by substrate, pH, and temperature in order in anaerobic samples. Field and laboratory manipulations of natural plant litter, rather than an acetogenic substrate, showed similarly large effects. The studies concluded that substrate is an important control over methanogenesis, that substrate availability in the field is closely coupled to the chemistry of the dominant vegetation influencing its decomposition rate, that most methane is produced from recent plant litter, and that landscape changes in pH are an important control, highly correlated with vegetation.

Schimel, David S.↗

Sensitive Measures of Soil Health Reveal Carbon Stability Across a Management Intensity and Plant Biodiversity Gradient

Soil carbon (C) is a major driver of soil health, yet little is known regarding how sensitive measures of soil C shift temporally within a single growing season in response to short-term weather perturbations. Our study aimed to i) Examine how long-term management impacts soil C cycling and stability across a management intensity and plant biodiversity gradient and ii) Assess how sensitive soil health indicators change temporally over the course of a single growing season in response to recent weather patterns. Here we quantify a variety of sensitive soil C measures at four time points across the 2021 growing season at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station’s Long Term Ecological Research Trial (LTER) located in southwest Michigan, USA. The eight systems sampled included four annual soybean ( Glycine max ) systems that ranged in management intensity (conventional, no-till, reduced input, and biologically-based), two perennial biofuel cropping systems (switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum) and hybrid poplars ( Populus nigra x P.maximowiczii )), and two unmanaged systems (early successional system and a mown but never tilled grassland). We found that unmanaged systems with increased perenniality enhanced mineralizable C (Min C) and permanganate oxidizable C (POXC) values. Additionally, all soil health indicators were found to be sensitive to changes in short-term weather perturbations over the course of the growing season. The implications of this study are threefold. First, this study assess indicators of labile and stable C pools over the course of the growing season and reflects the stability of soil C in different systems. Second, POXC, Min C, and ß-glucosidase (GLU) activity are sensitive soil health indicators that fluctuate temporally, which means that these soil health indicators could help elucidate the impact that weather patterns have on soil C dynamics. Lastly, for effective monitoring of soil C, sampling time and frequency should be considered for a comprehensive understanding of soil C cycling within a system.

Martin, Tvisha↗

DEVELOP Poster: Medicine Bow Disasters

The Medicine Bow National Forest (MBNF) consists of approximately 1,383,790 acres of forested land, grassland, and sagebrush steppe in southeastern Wyoming. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), an invasive plant species in the Western US, occurs in the grasslands throughout MBNF. Cheatgrass is known to rapidly colonize disturbed sites and dramatically alter historic fire regimes and nutrient/water dynamics as well as outcompete native plant species that are important forage for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and elk (Cervus canadensis). In 2012, the Squirrel Creek Fire burned approximately 10,587 acres of land within MBNF, exacerbating the spread of cheatgrass. In 2015, the Wyoming Ecological Forecasting DEVELOP team identified areas of high cheatgrass abundance within the fire boundary in order to guide US Forest Service (USFS) herbicide spraying efforts to reduce cheatgrass in 2016. This research used Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) data to create a 2019 probabilistic cheatgrass occurrence map. This map allowed an analysis of the effectiveness of aerial spraying to inform future land management techniques for the USFS. Based on the results of the Generalized Linear Model, we found that treated areas decreased in cheatgrass cover by 36% while untreated areas increased in cheatgrass cover by 6%, suggesting that herbicide treatment has been effective.

Disasters↗

Grassland productivity responds unexpectedly to dynamic light and soil water environments induced by photovoltaic arrays

Abstract Agrivoltaic (AV) systems are designed to coproduce photovoltaic (PV) energy on lands simultaneously supporting agriculture (food/forage production). PV infrastructure in agroecosystems alters resources critical for plant growth, and water‐limited agroecosystems such as grasslands are likely to be particularly sensitive to the unique spatial and temporal patterns of incident sunlight and soil water inherent within AV systems. However, the impact of resource alteration on forage production, the primary ecosystem service from managed grasslands, is poorly resolved. Here, we evaluated seasonal patterns of soil moisture (SM) and diurnal variation in incident sunlight (photosynthetic photon flux density [PPFD]) in a single‐axis‐tracking AV system established in a formerly managed semiarid C 3 grassland in Colorado. Our goals were to (1) quantify dynamic patterns of PPFD and SM within a 1.2 MW PV array in a perennial grassland, and (2) determine how aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and photosynthetic parameters responded to the resource patterns created by the PV array. We hypothesized that spatial variability in ANPP would be strongly related to SM patterns, typical of most grasslands. We measured significant reductions in ANPP directly beneath PV panels, where SM and PPFD were both low. However, in locations with significantly increased SM from the shedding and redistribution of precipitation by PV panels, ANPP was not increased. Instead, ANPP was greatest in locations where plants were shaded in the afternoon but received high levels of PPFD in the morning hours, when air temperatures and vapor pressure deficits were relatively low. Thus, contrary to expectations, we found relatively weak relationships between SM and ANPP despite significant spatial variability in both. Further, there was little evidence that light‐saturated photosynthesis ( A sat ) and quantum yield of CO 2 assimilation (ϕCO 2 ) differed for plants growing directly beneath (lowest PPFD) versus between (highest PPFD) PV panels. Overall, the AV system established in this semiarid managed grassland did not alter patterns of ANPP in ways predictable from past studies of controls of ANPP in open grasslands. However, our results suggest that the diurnal timing of low versus high periods of PPFD incident on plants is an important determinant of productivity patterns in grasslands.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Landscape composition and configuration have scale-dependent effects on agricultural pest suppression

Increasing landscape heterogeneity (composition and configuration) can enhance natural enemy populations and support pest suppression in agricultural landscapes. Using a network-based data mining approach, we examined independent gradients of landscape composition and configuration at six spatial scales that were associated with pest suppression services measured at 32 sites in Michigan and Wisconsin, USA. We compared the relative effects of landscape composition and configuration across scales with those of local crop type (corn or grassland). We found that multiple gradients of configurational heterogeneity were independent of composition and strongly associated with pest suppression, with different configuration metrics being predictive of pest suppression depending on the spatial scales and regions considered. Landscapes that were more configurationally heterogeneous at smaller spatial scales consistently supported higher pest suppression. In Michigan, pest suppression increased in landscapes with high edge contrast between annual crops and surrounding habitats and high edge density of grassland within 250-500 m radii. In Wisconsin, pest suppression increased with large core area of grassland and high field density within a 250 m radius. The main compositional effect we found was a positive relationship between grassland cover and pest suppression occurring at larger spatial scales (1000-1500 m) and occurring in Wisconsin but not in Michigan. Our findings demonstrate that effects of landscape composition and configuration on pest suppression differ across spatial scales and vary regionally. The network-based data mining techniques used here could be useful for disentangling intercorrelated landscape metrics in a variety of other contexts in landscape ecology.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

The global decline in the sensitivity of vegetation productivity to precipitation from 2001 to 2018

The sensitivity of vegetation productivity to precipitation (S ppt ) is a key metric for understanding the variations in vegetation productivity under changing precipitation and predicting future changes in ecosystem functions. However, a comprehensive assessment of S ppt over all the global land is lacking. Here, we investigated spatial patterns and temporal changes of S ppt across the global land from 2001 to 2018 with multiple streams of satellite observations. We found consistent spatial patterns of S ppt with different satellite products: S ppt was highest in dry regions while low in humid regions. Grassland and shrubland showed the highest S ppt , and evergreen needle-leaf forest and wetland showed the lowest. Temporally, S ppt showed a generally declining trend over the past two decades (p < .05), yet with clear spatial heterogeneities. The decline in S ppt was especially noticeable in North America and Europe, likely due to the increase in precipitation. In central Russia and Australia, however, S ppt showed an increasing trend. Biome-wise, most ecosystem types exhibited significant decrease in S ppt , while grassland, evergreen broadleaf forest, and mixed forest showed slight increases or non-significant changes in S ppt . Our finding of the overall decline in S ppt implies a potential stabilization mechanism for ecosystem productivity under climate change. However, the revealed S ppt increase for some regions and ecosystem types, in particular global grasslands, suggests that grasslands might be increasingly vulnerable to climatic variability with continuing global climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Filling gaps in our understanding of belowground plant traits across the world: an introduction to a Virtual Issue

The belowground world is one of the final frontiers in terrestrial ecology. The tangling of plant roots with the surrounding soil below is a lifeline for the humble forbs and towering trees above, and roots play a key role in shaping ecosystem carbon, water and nutrient cycling (Bardgett et al., 2014). Ecologists have long sought to better understand the ecosystem-scale consequences of differing plant strategies, above- and belowground, by relating plant characteristics, or traits, to plant function (Grime, 1977; Pregitzer, 2002). While developing trait–function linkages is arguably more difficult for plant traits that are hidden belowground, root and rhizosphere ecologists continue to fan out across grasslands and forests with their shovels, isotopes, and specialized cameras, seeking a better understanding of the secret lives of roots. Over the years, New Phytologist has served as a virtual town square for scientists to discuss their hard-won observations on the interplay among belowground plant traits, microbial activity, and edaphic and environmental conditions from biomes around the world (Norby & Jackson, 2000; Pregitzer, 2002; Matamala & Stover, 2013; Norby & Iversen, 2017). In this Editorial we highlight the newest papers that update and add to our understanding of the role of root and rhizosphere traits in broader ecosystem processes. We focused on papers published in New Phytologist between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020 and extended this window to papers still in ‘early view’ up to the time of writing. Because of the overwhelming number of papers, we did not include those with a decidedly genomic focus or that served primarily as data syntheses, reviews, insights or commentaries.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

AmeriFlux US-BFS Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-BFS Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station. Site Description - The Bernard Field Station (BFS), an 86-acre academic resource of the Claremont University Consortium, is situated within the campus of The Claremont Colleges in Claremont, CA. Its principal habitats comprise coastal sage scrub, Riversidian alluvial fan scrub, live oak forest, and grassland. The eddy covariance tower is located in the 'neck' of the field station, home to a protected area of Coastal Sage Scrub, dominated by Artemisia californica. BFS is within walking distance of Harvey Mudd College, serving as an invaluable outdoor laboratory resource for the students. With extensive flora and fauna, including over 170 species of birds, 27 species of mammals, and more than 700 species of insects, it embodies a significant ecological haven in the region that is otherwise Southern California suburbs.

Kavassalis, Sarah [Harvey Mudd College]↗

Rhode Island Ecological Conservation: Methods for Monitoring Rhode Island Habitats: Contributing to a Framework for Targeted Conservation and Management

Global avian population decline since the 1970s is largely attributable to habitat loss and degradation from anthropogenic disturbances. NASA DEVELOP’s Rhode Island Ecological Conservation team partnered with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island to compute land use land cover (LULC) maps of Rhode Island to aid in the conservation of the state’s 140 bird species. This project aimed to support the partner’s land acquisition strategies with updated and specific LULC classifications showing potential bird-habitat locations across the state. We incorporated remotely sensed data from Landsat 8 and 9 Operational Land Imager (OLI) into LULC maps using unsupervised classification techniques in ArcGIS Pro and supervised classification in Google Earth Engine. We generated six land classifications for 2023, which showed land cover dominated by upland habitats (forests, scrub/shrub, and grasslands), followed by development. We used TerrSet’s Land Change Modeler to forecast LULC change through 2043, using 2011 and 2021 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) land cover maps derived from Landsat 8 and 9 imagery. Project results suggest that non-urban upland and wetland habitats will decrease over time, while development will continue to encroach on non-urban avian habitats. Our maps and associated data will allow for more efficient land acquisition and management efforts to support avian habitat conservation across Rhode Island. Our study shows that data acquisition and processing from open data sources is feasible and further analysis can be done through GIS classification tools. More analysis is needed beyond this study to obtain more detailed land cover maps, though Audubon can aid its targeted conservation efforts with our current, historic, and forecasted LULC maps.

Remote sensing↗

Whole-soil warming leads to substantial soil carbon emission in an alpine grassland

The sensitivity of soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition in seasonally frozen soils, such as alpine ecosystems, to climate warming is a major uncertainty in global carbon cycling. Here we measure soil CO 2 emission during four years (2018–2021) from the whole-soil warming experiment (4 °C for the top 1 m) in an alpine grassland ecosystem. We find that whole-soil warming stimulates total and SOC-derived CO 2 efflux by 26% and 37%, respectively, but has a minor effect on root-derived CO 2 efflux. Moreover, experimental warming only promotes total soil CO 2 efflux by 7-8% on average in the meta-analysis across all grasslands or alpine grasslands globally (none of these experiments were whole-soil warming). We show that whole-soil warming has a much stronger effect on soil carbon emission in the alpine grassland ecosystem than what was reported in previous warming experiments, most of which only heat surface soils.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Some Problems and Solutions in Transferring Ecosystem Simulation Codes to Supercomputers

Many computer codes for the simulation of ecological systems have been developed in the last twenty-five years. This development took place initially on main-frame computers, then mini-computers, and more recently, on micro-computers and workstations. Recent recognition of ecosystem science as a High Performance Computing and Communications Program Grand Challenge area emphasizes supercomputers (both parallel and distributed systems) as the next set of tools for ecological simulation. Transferring ecosystem simulation codes to such systems is not a matter of simply compiling and executing existing code on the supercomputer since there are significant differences in the system architectures of sequential, scalar computers and parallel and/or vector supercomputers. To more appropriately match the application to the architecture (necessary to achieve reasonable performance), the parallelism (if it exists) of the original application must be exploited. We discuss our work in transferring a general grassland simulation model (developed on a VAX in the FORTRAN computer programming language) to a Cray Y-MP. We show the Cray shared-memory vector-architecture, and discuss our rationale for selecting the Cray. We describe porting the model to the Cray and executing and verifying a baseline version, and we discuss the changes we made to exploit the parallelism in the application and to improve code execution. As a result, the Cray executed the model 30 times faster than the VAX 11/785 and 10 times faster than a Sun 4 workstation. We achieved an additional speed-up of approximately 30 percent over the original Cray run by using the compiler's vectorizing capabilities and the machine's ability to put subroutines and functions "in-line" in the code. With the modifications, the code still runs at only about 5% of the Cray's peak speed because it makes ineffective use of the vector processing capabilities of the Cray. We conclude with a discussion and future plans.

Skiles, J. W.↗

Daily evapotranspiration changes during heatwaves at 32 NEON sites, 2019-2021

This dataset provides partitioned evapotranspiration (ET, the combined loss of water from soil and plant surfaces) anomalies during heatwave events—soil evaporation (E) and transpiration (T)—for 268 heatwave events across 32 National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) flux sites in the contiguous United States from 2019–2021. Using an ensemble of four high-frequency turbulence methods (Flux-variance Similarity, Conditional Eddy Covariance [CEC], CEC with Water-Use Efficiency, and Conditional Eddy Accumulation; see Zahn and Bou-Zeid 2024), half-hourly transpiration-to-evapotranspiration (T/ET) ratios were derived from 20 hertz (Hz, cycles per second) eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water vapor (H₂O) concentrations. The dataset spans six vegetation types including evergreen and deciduous forests, grasslands, cultivated crops, shrublands, and emergent herbaceous wetlands. Data Package Contents: The dataset includes a single CSV (comma-separated values) file containing daily anomalies (deviations from baseline conditions) for transpiration (Delta_T), evaporation (Delta_E), total evapotranspiration (Delta_ET), and T/ET ratio (Delta_T_ET) during each day of identified heatwave events. The file also includes site codes, dates, heatwave event identifiers, and day-of-heatwave indicators. The CSV file can be opened with spreadsheet software (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets) or programming environments (Python, R, MATLAB). This resource enables researchers to investigate ecosystem-specific responses to thermal extremes, validate land surface model partitioning of ET fluxes, and examine feedbacks between water cycling and surface energy balance during heatwaves. The dataset is particularly valuable for studies linking vegetation hydraulic strategies to climate resilience, as it captures the divergent responses of shallow-rooted versus deep-rooted ecosystems. Potential applications include improving drought early warning systems, informing irrigation management strategies, and advancing our mechanistic understanding of land-atmosphere interactions under extreme heat conditions.

Day of Heatwave↗

AmeriFlux US-xAE NEON Klemme Range Research Station (OAES)

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-xAE NEON Klemme Range Research Station (OAES). Site Description - The 1,560-acre Klemme Range Research Station is a grassland site managed for livestock grazing and pasture, located in the middle of the Rolling Red Plains Resource Area. The Rolling Red Plains extends from south of the Red River to north of the Oklahoma/Kansas border consisting of approximately 9.4 million acres, which occupies a significant portion of Western Oklahoma excluding the Oklahoma Panhandle.

Network), NEON (National Ecological Observatory↗

AmeriFlux FLUXNET-1F US-xAE NEON Klemme Range Research Station (OAES)

This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-xAE NEON Klemme Range Research Station (OAES). This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-xAE NEON Klemme Range Research Station (OAES) produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - The 1,560-acre Klemme Range Research Station is a grassland site managed for livestock grazing and pasture, located in the middle of the Rolling Red Plains Resource Area. The Rolling Red Plains extends from south of the Red River to north of the Oklahoma/Kansas border consisting of approximately 9.4 million acres, which occupies a significant portion of Western Oklahoma excluding the Oklahoma Panhandle.

Network), NEON (National Ecological Observatory↗

The influence of tillage and fertilizer on the flux and source of nitrous oxide with reference to atmospheric variation using laser spectroscopy

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is the third most important long-lived greenhouse gas and agriculture is the largest source of N 2 O emissions. Curbing N 2 O emissions requires understanding influences on the flux and sources of N 2 O. We measured flux and evaluated microbial sources of N 2 O using site preference ( S P ; the intramolecular distribution of 15 N in N 2 O) in flux chambers from a grassland tilling and agricultural fertilization experiments and atmosphere. We identified values greater than that of the average atmosphere to reflect nitrification and/or fungal denitrification and those lower than atmosphere as increased denitrification. Our spectroscopic approach was based on an extensive calibration with 18 standards that yielded S P accuracy and reproducibility of 0.7 ‰ and 1.0 ‰, respectively, without preconcentration. Chamber samples from the tilling experiment taken ~ monthly over a year showed a wide range in N 2 O flux (0–1.9 g N 2 O-N ha -1 d -1 ) and S P (- 1.8 to 25.1 ‰). Flux and S P were not influenced by tilling but responded to sampling date. Large fluxes occurred in October and May in no-till when soils were warm and moist and during a spring thaw, an event likely representing release of N 2 O accumulated under snow cover. These high fluxes could not be ascribed to a single microbial process as S P differed among chambers. However, the year-long S P and flux data for no-till showed a slight direct relationship suggesting that nitrification increased with flux. The comparative data in till showed an inverse relationship indicating that high flux events are driven by denitrification. Corn ( Zea mays ) showed high fluxes and S P values indicative of nitrification ~ 4 wk after fertilization with subsequent declines in S P indicating denitrification. Although there was no effect of fertilizer treatment on flux or S P in switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum) , high fluxes occurred ~1 month after fertilization. In both treatments, S P was indicative of denitrification in many instances, but evidence of nitrification/fungal denitrification also prevailed. At 2 m atmospheric N 2 O S P had a range of 31.1 ‰ and 14.6 ‰ in the grassland tilling and agricultural fertilization experiments, respectively. These data suggest the influence of soil microbial processes on atmospheric N 2 O and argue against the use of the global average atmospheric S P in isotopic modeling approaches.

Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗