The Konza Prairie. Photo courtesy TravelKS.com
"Climate change in the grassland" is the topic of the next Smoky Hills Audubon program.
Dr. Jesse Nippert, a principal investigator of the Konza Prairie, is scheduled to present the program at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in 229 Peters Science Hall at Kansas Wesleyan University. Peters Science Hall is on the southeast part of the campus off of Cloud Street. The presentation is open to the public at no charge. Those attending may arrive at 7 p.m. to meet with the speaker.
What’s the connection between climate change and the tallgrass prairie? Learn about the prairie’s future in a warming climate from a grassland ecologist. Nippert will talk about climate change’s impacts on the tallgrass prairie.
Nippert's laboratory focuses on the physiological responses of plants to environmental variability and water availability. Understanding physiological plant responses to changes in resource availability allows them to understand and predict community and ecosystem dynamics over time. By the nature of this field, their research is interdisciplinary, providing the opportunity to collaborate broadly with other ecologists (population, community and ecosystem, physical scientists (geologists, atmospheric scientists, hydrologists, and evolutionary biologists.