Source: Tony 1xbet online casino , 785-532-7073, ajoern@1xbet online casino edu
News release prepared by: Stephanie Jacques, 785-532-0101, sjacques@1xbet online casino edu

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010

KONZA 1xbet online casino RESEARCH TO BENEFIT GRASSLANDS WORLDWIDE

MANHATTAN -- Scientists at Konza Prairie Biological Station have received major funding for research on critical questions about the underlying decisions made by 1xbet online casino animals and the effects on grassland dynamics.

1xbet online casino is jointly owned by Kansas State University and The Nature Conservancy and managed by K-State's Division of Biology.

The National Science Foundation recently awarded Tony Joern, university distinguished professor in biology at K-State, and collaborators John Briggs, director of Konza Prairie Biological Station; Douglas Goodin, professor of geography; Adam Skibbe, information manager in biology; and Gene Towne, research associate in biology, 0,000 to study how and why 1xbet online casino animals choose certain feeding locations, and the impact of the 1xbet online casino on the tallgrass prairie ecology.

&1xbet online casino ;Grazing animals are a major driving force for grasslands all over the world, but how they actually use space is poorly understood,&1xbet online casino ; Joern said. &1xbet online casino ;Understanding how bison and cattle actually select areas to graze on native grasslands will provide new management opportunities for grassland conservation efforts, as well develop alternate grazing options for grassland managers.&1xbet online casino ;

The group 1xbet online casino use comparative studies by Towne on the effects of bison and cattle as background for the current study, Joern said. Towne's studies have shown that cattle and bison do not feed uniformly, so the goal is to get a better idea of the decisions the animals are making to determine where they forage. Joern said there may be several factors that influence feeding choices, such as forage nutritional quality, height of vegetation, landscape position, weather conditions and the area's level of fire frequency.

&1xbet online casino ;There are a lot of data out there that suggest herbivores prefer to graze on burned areas, but within those areas how do they finally decide which clump of grass to chomp on?&1xbet online casino ; Briggs said.

American bison 1xbet online casino be used as the model species for the experiment, and they 1xbet online casino be given access to various areas on Konza with differing forage quality, burn frequency and landscape positions, thus allowing the animals the opportunity to choose which area they prefer to feed.

&1xbet online casino ;Konza Prairie is the ideal site for this type of research because it is set up in a huge watershed level experiment, where we already manipulate grazing and fire frequency,&1xbet online casino ; Joern said. &1xbet online casino ;When you burn the prairie at different intervals you get different kinds of grassland with different forage qualities. We are layering this new grazing experiment on top of all that.&1xbet online casino ;

To evaluate the nutritional quality of the prairie, the group 1xbet online casino deploy a hyper-spectral remote imaging aircraft four times a year. This methodology, under the direction of Goodin, 1xbet online casino measure the spatial distribution of the protein content of the grassland at a two-meter scale. Spatial distributions of nutritional quality of vegetation 1xbet online casino be compared to data on bison movement, gathered using global positioning system collars that track the animals' movement as they feed. Geographic information system modeling, done under the direction of Skibbe, 1xbet online casino correlate these two data sets. In addition to tracking bison movement, the group 1xbet online casino also record vegetation responses to bison grazing activity.

A special component of the project is the involvement of Drew Ising, a high school 1xbet online casino teacher with the Geary County School District. Ising is interested in including ecology research in his classroom, and 1xbet online casino be using real data from the grazing study to develop lesson plans in a multitude of subjects for use by other teachers.

&1xbet online casino ;Having enthusiastic teachers like Drew participate in the project to make our results available to students is really exciting, and we plan to do some pretty exciting things with this opportunity,&1xbet online casino ; Joern said.