KAS Symposium
Geospatial Analysis in the Great Plains
Oral Presentation Title/Authors
MODELING SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF BISON IMPACT ON THE KONZA PRAIRIE LANDSCAPE
ECOLOGY. Duane NELLIS, Office of the Dean and John M. BRIGGS, Division
of Biology; Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506.
Abstract
Within the Konza Prairie, Kansas (a Nature Conservancy Preserve), grazing,
primarily by bison, directly affects primary production, nutrients, organic
matter, species composition, and to a degree, drainage and depositional
networks. Geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing have
been used in an attempt to characterize bison grazing as a landscape-level
disturbance. Since 1991, bison have been observed twice per week from
March through October. Within a superimposed 30 meter cell, bison, as the
dependent variable, occupying each cell are recorded and entered into a
GIS. Independent variables include burn treatment, soil type, distance to
water, vegetation condition, percent slope, and slope aspect. Through GIS
modeling approaches, we determined bison preference for burned watersheds
in April through June, with soil (which influenced vegetation productivity)
a more significant parameter in bison grazing pattern from July through
fall. Extrapolating the results to areas outside Konza offers interesting
possibilities for more fully understanding the role of bison in the Flint
Hills tallgrass prairie ecosystem. This research is ongoing as part of the
K.S.U. Division of Biology's Long Term Ecological Research program funded
by the National Science Foundation.
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