Biome Productivity Exercise

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER)

                                                                                                                                                              

The Assignment1. You have been assigned to a random group of 4 students2. Read the first section of Knapp et al. (2004).3. Your group has been assigned 2 LTER sites from the LTER

Primary Productivity database on the MS Excel file named: LTER anpp-precip.xls

4. Additional information can be obtained from the following web sites:

a. http://www.lternet.edu/ b. http://intranet.lternet.edu/cgi-bin/anpp.pl

5. Search for patterns that describe the effect of precipitation and temperature on primary productivity

a. Approximately 25 years worth of data are available for exploration and for plotting graphs

b. Construct a scatter plot using Excel and copy and paste it into into PowerPoint

What to turn in.1. A statement of the ecological rule rule you think supports your

data (e.g., as temp. increases, NPP decreases)2. Two graphs based on the data (Excel imported into a

PowerPoint)3. Test the rule by comparing the figures from your LTER sites to

those constructed using data from two different LTER sites4. Use what you know about biomes and the factors affecting

primary productivity from the lecture, the web sites listed previously and the text to answer the question below.a. “Is the rule supported?”.

i. If it is not supported, propose one or two reasons that could explain why not

ii. If it is supported, propose one or two other factors that were not measured or included in the database that might alter the patterns you observed in the first two LTER sites.

Deadline• Create a PowerPoint presentation with no more than

three slides of data on your assigned LTER Sites (be sure to include units on your graphics).

• Go to D2L and put them in the drop box labeled “Ecology Homework Assignment” by Thursday, Feb. 9th at 7:00 a.m.

• In class we will do the following:– I will select a few examples, which will be presented in class

and used for discussion.– We will examine how “ecological rules” are used to describe

the behavior of ecosystems given certain boundaries.– This is worth 10 points.

LTER Locations

CC

TL

HB

Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Sites

Number Site Abrev Veg Code

Vegetation Type

1 Bonanza, AK BNZ a Balsam poplar forest

2 Cedar Creek, MN CC b Oak savanna grassland

3 Harvard Forest, MA HF c Mixed deciduous forest

4 Hubbard Brook, NH HB d Mixed deciduous forest

5 Jornada, NM JOR e Black gramma grassland

6 Kellogg, MI KG f Successional field (annually tilled)

7 Konza Prairie, KS KNZ g Tall grass prairie (annually burned)

8 Niwot Ridge, CO NWT h Moist alpine meadow

9 Sevilleta, NM SEV i Mixed desert grassland

10 Short grass Steppe, CO SG j Short grass steppe (swale)

11 Arctic Tundra, AK TL k Arctic tundra

LTER Assignment Combinations• Find your group number. It will indicate which two sites you

are to compare in generating your ecological rule.• Test your rule by examining the data from two different sites,

and explain whether or not these sites fit the rule.

BNZ CC HF HB JOR KG KNZ NWT SEV SG TL

BNZ 1 2 3 4 5

CC 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

HF 13 14 15 16

HB 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

JOR 24 25 26

KG 27 28 29

KNZ 30 31

KNZ 32 33

NWT 34

SEV 35

TL