DOI: 10.6073/pasta/b8b7ef76d239915ba8da0b4e0e47b29e
title: SGS-LTER Long-Term Montioring Project: Arthropod Pitfall Trapping on Small Mammal Trapping Webs on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1998-2006, ARS Study Number 118 (Reformatted to the ecocomDP Design Pattern)

description: This data package is formatted as an ecocomDP (Ecological Community Data Pattern). For more information on ecocomDP see https://github.com/EDIorg/ecocomDP. This Level 1 data package was derived from the Level 0 data package found here: https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/knb-lter-sgs/134/17. The abstract below was extracted from the Level 0 data package and is included for context: This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83450. With the exception of heteromyids, eg kangaroo rats and pocket mice, most small rodents in shortgrass steppe are omnivorous. Depending on season, arthropods (insects and arachnids) make up 40-85% of the diet of grasshopper mice and thirteen-lined ground squirrels, the most widespread rodents in northern shortgrass steppe. Small mammals are among the most important predators of ground-dwelling macroarthropods and herbivorous insects provide a direct resource link between weather and plant production. Understanding temporal variability in the abundance of arthropods is central to determining the mechanisms that drive small rodent populations. At present, there are no long-term studies of arthropods in shortgrass steppe, despite the important role that these taxa play in grassland food webs. Beginning in 1998, we implemented field protocols to track changes in relative abundance of terrestrial macroarthropods in grassland and shrub-dominated habitats of shortgrass steppe. Sampling was conducted on the six trapping webs (three upland prairie, three lowland saltbush) where we studied rodent populations, and was conducted approximately monthly from May-September (4-5 sessions/year). Ground-dwelling macroarthropods were sampled on each web using pitfall traps, set in one four-by-five grid, with 10 m between traps. Traps consisted of plastic cups (90-mm diameter, 120 mm deep), including a plastic funnel (90-mm diameter), buried flush with the ground surface. Traps were shaded with wooden covers held in place with nails; traps could be closed when not operational by nailing the cover flush to the ground. Traps were usually open for 4 consecutive days (ie 80 trap-days) during a trapping session. On the 4th day, captured arthropods were removed from the traps, identified and released. All arthropods were identified to the ordinal level; beetles (Coleoptera), crickets (Orthoptera), true bugs (Hemiptera) and spiders were identified to the familial level; and a few taxa, eg tenebrionid beetles, were identified to species. We also recorded any reptiles and amphibians captured. The number of individuals of each taxa captured per 100 trap-days was used as an index of relative abundance, with adjustments made for traps that were flooded or disturbed by cattle or for changes to the number of days that traps were open (range 4-7 days). We sampled grasshoppers by counting the numbers flushed from 0.78-m2 circular plots (hoops) placed on each web. Hoops were set out on the day that pitfall traps were opened and were surveyed on the day that traps were closed. A technician used a wooden lath to flush and count all grasshoppers from each hoop. Grasshoppers were not identified to species. Surveys were conducted in 1998, then were discontinued until 2002. In 1998 and from 2002-2005, nine hoops were sampled on each web. Beginning in 2006, we sampled a total of 20 hoops on each web. The Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) project was funded by National Science Foundation as one of the first sites in the US LTER Network in 1982. This collaborative, interdisciplinary research project was established in the Natural Resource Ecology Lab at Colorado State University by ecosystem scientists who learned novel approaches to study grassland ecosystems during the International Biome Program (IBP) (1968-1974). The SGS-LTER project was built upon the foundation of data and information obtained during IBP, as scientists sought to identify and follow, and often manipulate in experiments, important ecosystem processes over the long-term. The objectives of the SGS-LTER project were to investigate what mechanisms regulate processes in the shortgrass steppe. Research questions focused on how biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem are coupled, where and when ecosystem components are most vulnerable to perturbations, disseminating information that would be helpful for rangeland management and assessing impacts of climate change. Scientists explored variations in the structure and function of the ecosystem over space and time and sought to understand how these aspects are governed by climate, natural disturbance, biota, physiography, and human use. Scientists at the SGS-LTER integrated long-term monitoring data, designed experimental studies, performed and advanced modeling techniques, and synthesized data to conduct innovative research, education, and outreach. The core SGS-LTER research site was established on the Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER) in Nunn, Colorado, part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The research site sits in the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains at the western edge of the shortgrass steppe of North America. The shortgrass steppe ecosystem evolved with grazing by the American bison, which has now been replaced by cattle. Grazing by domestic livestock is the primary land use of native grassland, which occupies about 60% of the land area of the shortgrass steppe. Short grasses dominate the vegetation community, which have adapted to grazing and less than 400 mm of annual rainfall. The topography is characterized by gently rolling hills, broad ephemeral stream courses and low flat-topped terraces. Aspects of physiography regulate the shortgrass steppe ecosystem, including landscape position, soil age, water holding capacity, soil depth and surface texture which, in turn, determine such properties as soil moisture storage, net primary productivity and the distribution of small mammals such as prairie dogs and pocket gophers. SGS-LTER scientists have expanded their research studies beyond the CPER to identify similar or different patterns in ecosystem structure and function in North American grasslands; across the Great Plains region and along the latitudinal gradient from Wyoming to Mexico. They also conducted cross-site collaborative research and compared their results and tested theories in grasslands located in South America, Asia and Africa. Funding from NSF for the SGS-LTER project ends in 2014, but over thirty years of research has resulted in a scientific team with diverse expertise, which produced over 1200 journal publications, almost 400 book chapters and over 200 theses. Data, products and other information produced from the SGS-LTER are available through the LTER Network Information System, Digital Collections of Colorado at CSU or upon request through ecodata_nrel@colostate.edu.