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

[Katie Gavenus (Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies)]

Cool idea Jill!

For the Northern Gulf of Alaska, I think timing of spring snow/ice melt and
amount of summer run-off (rain & glacial melt) is fairly important.  It
isn't a super straightforward relationship like with the prairie grasses,
but I know a key question of the NGA LTER is how year-to-year variability
in the river plumes affects productivity, etc. in those specific parts of
the Gulf.

For the Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems, I think again the timing of spring
melt/break up and fall freeze is really important to the lagoon functions
and ecological communities.

In both of these instances it is more the dynamics of the overall water
cycle (especially change in state from solid to liquid and back again) than
precipitation itself that are driving forces.

So if it is described as freshwater availability/input rather than
specifically precipitation I think it would work well for the two
aquatic/marine sites I'm connected with.

Thanks,
Katie


Katie Gavenus
Program Director
Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies
708 Smokey Bay Way
Homer, AK 99603
907-299-0983 (this is my personal cell phone, please call during 'normal'
work hours during summer when I'm in frequently in the field)
907-235-1974 (this is my office phone, please leave a message if you need
to contact me outside of 'normal' work hours)


On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 1:02 PM Jill Haukos <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
> _______________________________________________
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> education mailing list
> education at lternet.edu
>
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