Project Number: 5409-11000-003-06
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 15, 2004
End Date: Jul 30, 2009

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research project is to use stable isotopes and related ecological methods and technologies to elucidate the role of water relations, nutrient cycling, soil biology, and plant community responses to global change, and explore management options (e.g., legume additions) or issues (e.g., weed infestation) in the analysis and development of sustainable management practices for western rangelands.

Approach:
Although we know water and N are major drivers in the functioning of semi-arid rangeland plant communities, our knowledge of how to manage these lands in order to promote their sustainability and health through these important drivers is incomplete. Further, the constantly changing environment due to global climate change is altering water and nutrient cycles, independently causing important ecosystem changes and complicating our ability to understand and manage rangeland ecosystems. The Rangeland Resources Research Unit (RRRU) will conduct CO2 enrichment, grazing management, and legume research that will explore the consequences of combined global change and management on the structure and functioning of semi-arid rangelands. RRRU scientists will collaborate with scientists in the Stable Isotope Laboratory, University of Wyoming, to use stable isotope and related ecological methods and technologies to more fully explore the consequences of global change and management effects on ecological functioning of western rangelands. The results of these investigations will provide the basis for formulating new sustainable management strategies appropriate for the changing environment due to global climate change.