[LTER-education] Cross-Site Activity - nascent development

Thu Oct 1 11:19:42 PDT 2020

To chime in with another coastal site:
I would say that VCR is combo between Katie's and Alex's responses. Presence of freshwater (more so than precipitation) x elevation shape the ecosystems along the Virginia Coast. For us, the elevation is more about escape from sea level/salt stress.
That said, we do collect precip data.

Best,
Cora

Cora A. Johnston, PhD
Site Director

She/her

E coraj at virginia.edu
P 757.620.7016

University of Virginia
Virginia Coast Reserve LTER
Anheuser-Busch Coastal Research Center
6364 Cliffs Road
Cape Charles, VA 23310

ABCRC: https://www.abcrc.virginia.edu/siteman2/<https://www.abcrc.virginia.edu/siteman2/><https://www.abcrc.virginia.edu/siteman2/>

LTER: www.vcrlter.virginia.edu/home2/<https://www.vcrlter.virginia.edu/home2/>

"Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.  We must embark on a cultural shift that places science in its rightful place...as an indispensable part of what makes life worth living."   -B. Greene

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________________________________
From: education <education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu> on behalf of Alexandra Rose <alexandra.rose at colorado.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 1:37 PM
To: Haas, Kara <karahaas at msu.edu>; Snow, Pamela M. <psnow at fas.harvard.edu>; Steven McGee <mcgee at lponline.net>; education at lternet.edu <education at lternet.edu>
Subject: Re: [LTER-education] Cross-Site Activity - nascent development

Hi team!

Just also wanted to say that at Niwot elevation is a key driver of species composition… it interacts with precipitation to determine which habitats we see where.  If we could add elevation along with latitude and longitude, Niwot would certainly be plottable on your graph.

Alex

From: education <education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu> On Behalf Of Haas, Kara
Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 8:40 AM
To: Snow, Pamela M. <psnow at fas.harvard.edu>; Steven McGee <mcgee at lponline.net>; education at lternet.edu
Subject: Re: [LTER-education] Cross-Site Activity - nascent development

Great idea Jill!  Can you share the graph from your original email (I can’t find the one with the attachment!)?

Rain/drought, irrigation, ground water are all studied as part of the KBS LTER!  Julie can speak more intelligently to the science than I can but we definitely have lots of water and precipitation related data!   our plots have different biomass too from corn/soy/wheat rotation, switchgrass, ‘old field’, restored prairie so there is also a story about precipitation and its impacts on different plants.

I found this climate change and precipitation lesson from 2012 in our files: http://kbsgk12project.kbs.msu.edu/blog/2012/11/07/the-new-farmers-almanac-agriculture-and-climate-change/

Thanks for working on this Jill!  It would definitely be something that we could share with teachers and likely build a whole workshop around!

Kara

Kara Haas

Science Education & Outreach Coordinator

W.K. Kellogg Biological Station

Doctoral Student | Science Education

Curriculum, Instruction & Teacher Education

Department of Teacher Education | College of Education

Michigan State University

karahaas at msu.edu<mailto:karahaas at msu.edu>

269-317-9075 (cell)

@KaraHaaSciEd  <https://twitter.com/KaraHaaSciEd>

#KBSK12

Visit us online! KBS website<https://www.kbs.msu.edu/education/k-12/>, Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/KelloggBioStn>, YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/user/kelloggbiostn>

From: education <education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu<mailto:education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu>> On Behalf Of Snow, Pamela M.
Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2020 9:59 AM
To: Steven McGee <mcgee at lponline.net<mailto:mcgee at lponline.net>>; education at lternet.edu<mailto:education at lternet.edu>
Subject: Re: [LTER-education] Cross-Site Activity - nascent development

Jill,

We do not currently do work with precipitation outreach directly through Harvard Forest Schoolyard  LTER, although it impacts tree health/growth which is at the heart of much of our outreach.

We do have a weather station here that tracks precipitation so I’ll be interested to see what ideas you come up with for cross site work, and how much time is required to participate.

Thanks for reaching out to the network and trying to come up with a cross site activity.

Pamela

Pamela M. Snow

Schoolyard Ecology Coordinator

Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street

Petersham, MA

978-756-6146

[cid:image001.png at 01D697E7.3C1A6290]

From: education <education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu<mailto:education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu>> On Behalf Of Steven McGee
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2020 7:27 PM
To: education at lternet.edu<mailto:education at lternet.edu>
Subject: Re: [LTER-education] Cross-Site Activity - nascent development

Hi Jill,

Precipitation, stream flow, and reservoir height are the primary datasets in our Luquillo Data Jam. The students have produced a variety of instantiations of your graph.  Here is a link to the Dec 2019 posters that the students produced: http://criticalzone.org/luquillo/news/story/the-luquillo-lter-czo-schoolyard-data-jam-2019/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__criticalzone.org_luquillo_news_story_the-2Dluquillo-2Dlter-2Dczo-2Dschoolyard-2Ddata-2Djam-2D2019_&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=koKNYb_DzoohoQ8VqGBhPnHBNvavCg9xkO2gMNRLoOs&m=ba8z7nPJg0KLCemPEdlIaQpZoo_lXQigyOp6IgxBb1o&s=7W8wxg2tcF-NlWYyQ4yGVObKjgowOi_VbUq31Qrnn2Y&e=>

They are in Spanish, but math is a universal language so you may be able to figure out which ones are rainfall.

Steven

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On Sep 30, 2020, at 3:02 PM, Jill Haukos <konzaed at ksu.edu<mailto:konzaed at ksu.edu>> wrote:

Hello fellow educators,

I've been thinking about the development of our long-awaited cross-site activity.  So, what connects each of our sites - what do we ALL have in common that can be quantified, evaluated, and shared?  The answer = precipitation

I'm beginning to put an activity together about the effects of water on the tallgrass prairie. Other than sunshine, oxygen and CO2, there is NOTHING more important to the growth and health of the tallgrass prairie than water.  That's the crux of my story. If we had more water, there'd be a forest here rather than a prairie.  If we had less water, we'd be a short-grass prairie.  One can look at the average amount of precipitation along with the latitude and longitude and guess what kind of plants grow in that area.

The question is:  can we do that with your site?  Can we look at the latitude, longitude and average precipitation and guess what would and would not grow there?

How does precipitation affect aquatic sites?  Can we include aquatic sites in this activity?

I'm attaching a graph of precipitation at Konza Prairie. The total height of each column reflects total annual precip.  Each color represents the amount of precip per month.  The monthly precip is important because it affects the height of the tallgrass species. When we get lots of rain in July (navy blue) we get really tall grass.  When July's precip is low, the grass is shorter.

Would you be able to make a graph like mine?  Would I be able to tell a story about your site just by looking at your precipitation graph?

These are my first steps for a cross-site activity.  Tell me your thoughts.

Thanks,

Jill

Jill F. Haukos

Director of Education

Konza Prairie Biological Station

116 Ackert Hall; Division of Biology

Kansas State University

Manhattan, KS  66506

(785) 587-0381

konzaed at ksu.edu<mailto:konzaed at ksu.edu>

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