Project Number: 5409-11000-005-01
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 01, 2009
End Date: Jul 31, 2014

Objective:
Evaluate how warming and increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration affect the structure and functioning of Great Plains grasslands through their affects on primary production, N and C cycling, water relations, and plant community dynamics.

Approach:
Stable Isoptope Lab/University of Wyoming (SILUW) and ARS will collaborate in planning and conducting cooperative global change research at the High Plains Grasslands Research Station (HPGRS) to investigate how global change influences ecosystem functioning through evaluating the combined effects of rising atmospheric CO2 and temperature on C and N cycling, plant/soil water relations, weed invasions and plant community ecology. Research will be conducted under realistic field conditions in a native, semi-arid grassland in which ambient CO2 is increased from present-day levels of 390 ppm to 600 ppm and temperatures increased 1.5/3 C day/night. These altered environmental conditions are predicted to develop in Wyoming over the second half of the century.