Grasslands provide environmental and economic benefits like habitat and agricultural production. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates North America’s grasslands have declined by 62%. Overgrazing, invasive species, woody encroachment and other disruptors have contributed to the decline.
Researchers from the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, the Noble Research Institute and East Central University are establishing the Center for Grassland Ecosystem Forecasting to improve conservation and management.
The group will create observatories at OU’s Kessler Atmosphere and Ecological Field Station, which has suffered from woody encroachment by eastern red cedars, and in coexisting pasture and prairie in El Reno, according to a news release.
Researchers will use long-term soil, microbe, plant and weather data in the project. Simulations will model how grasslands react to Oklahoma’s different weather conditions and management.
Xiangming Xiao, an OU research professor, will direct the center. He said his team has already tested this kind of work at a smaller scale.
“We are now ready to tackle this grand challenge across multiple organizational scales from ecosystems to ranches, watersheds and the state,” he said in the release.
The center is funded with an $8 million four-year grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
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