Grasslands: Great Plains and Prairie Potholes

Agricultural lands account for more than 50% of the lower 48 states and the effects of agricultural land use reach beyond individual fields and farms affecting terrestrial and migratory wildlife. Thus, it is important to know what long-term benefits US Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs and policies have on wildlife habitat and the American public. The USDAs Conservation...

In drylands, chronic reductions in water availability (press-drought) through reduced precipitation and increased temperatures may have profound ecosystem effects, depending on the sensitivities of the dominant plants and plant functional types. In this study, we are examining the impacts of moderate, but long-term chronic drought using a network of 40 drought shelters on the Colorado Plateau...

The emerging field of Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis allows characterization of species presence and community biodiversity by identifying trace amounts of genetic material left behind as organisms move through their environments. EESC scientists have been using eDNA technologies to detect native and rare species and as community biomonitoring tools.

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, and University of Arizona are studying the distribution of grassland bird communities across the western Great Plains to anticipate how species distributions may respond to a changing landscape.

America’s grasslands are in the middle of the country where there is insufficient rain to support forests but too much to be a desert.

Badlands National Park (BADL) contains one of the largest protected expanses of mixed-grass prairie in the United States, much of which supports a herd of nearly wild bison. The park nevertheless is too small to accommodate bison’s natural nomadic behavior, which in the past resulted in their ephemeral but intense influence on Great Plains grasslands. This research is assessing the spatial...

Invasion by annual brome grasses (cheatgrass and Japanese brome) and other exotic annual grasses into National Park Service units (parks) in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) impacts park ecological and historical landscape integrity. The Annual Brome Adaptive Management (ABAM) decision support tool (DST) was built to support vegetation management decision making, particularly regarding these...

More than 100,000 ha of native tallgrass and mixed-grass prairies are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the northern Great Plains. Although prairies in this region evolved with grazing, fire, and climatic variability, management of FWS grasslands often has been passive and involved extended periods of rest. In 2008, the USGS and the FWS initiated a collaborative effort, the...

The extent of native prairie throughout the north-central United States has sharply declined since European settlement, and much that remains has been invaded by introduced cool-season grasses, reducing floristic diversity and quality. On lands under its ownership, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to restore native prairie integrity by reducing occurrence of introduced species under...

The Prairie Pothole Region of the northern Great Plains annually hosts 50–80% of North America’s ducks during the breeding season. Accordingly, there are significant government and private funds that go to conservation for the purposes of improving duck production in the region. The Prairie Pothole Region ecosystem has a number of stressors, intensive agriculture being chief among them. The...

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) is investigating limitations to restoring abundant aquatic macroinvertebrate populations to Minnesota wetlands and shallow lakes. Recent research on larger more permanent wetlands in Minnesota indicates that there have been decreases in quality of wetlands of use by ducks. That research also describes a decline in abundance of amphipods, a shrimp...

Rising commodity crop prices, increased federal subsidies for biofuels, such as corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel, and reduction in U.S. Farm Bill conservation programs have facilitated rapid land-use changes in the Northern Great Plains (NGP). Although renewable biofuels are touted as a mechanism for increasing energy security and potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, little is...