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

[Jill Haukos]

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
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