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|                             JORNADA LTER                         |
|                      New Mexico State University                 |
|                   Research Project Description Form              |
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All Jornada Desert Site NSF / LTER projects must be documented on
the following form.  In addition, associated data sets must also
be described on Data Set Documentation Forms, available from the
data manager.
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 1) Project title:
    --------------
    Arthropod Pitfall Traps

 2) Responsible investigator:
    -------------------------
    David Lightfoot

 3) Date research commenced (mm/dd/yyyy):
    -------------------------------------
    01/01/1995

 4) Date research terminated (mm/dd/yyyy):
    --------------------------------------
    ONGOING

 5) PI funding the research:
    ------------------------
    Jornada LTER III

 6) Additional investigator(s):
    ---------------------------
    NONE

 7) Funding agency (ex. NSF, USDA):
    -------------------------------
    NSF/LTER

 8) Funding cycle (Ex. LTER II, N/A):
    ---------------------------------
    LTER III

 9) Informative abstract (Describe research project completely.
    Include project OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS.)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Methods and locations.  Arthropod pitfall trap lines have
       been installed at three creosotebush sites, three
       grassland sites, and three mesquite sites, and three
       tarbush sites.  Each line consists of 5 traps at 10 meter
       intervals.  Each pitfall trap consists of one 3 by 4.5
       inch steel can buried in the ground, with the open top of
       the can level with the ground surface. A plastic cup was
       placed in each cand and filled half full of propylene
       glycol. An 8 by 8 inch ceramic tile was elevated over each
       trap by placing 3 inch nails in the ground on four sides
       of the trap. The tile is elevated approximately one to two
       inches over the trap. The traps are left open continuously
       year-round, and sampled once every 8 weeks (January,
       March, May, July, September, November).

       When the pitfall traps are sampled, the contents of each
       cup is emptied into a small wire strainer, and the
       arthropods are trasferred into labeled glass storage vials
       with 70% ethanol. The vials are then taken back to the lab
       where the arthropods are sorted, identified, and
       tabulated.

    Objectives.  Desertification is hypothesized to have altered
       the spatial and temporal availability of resources
       required by the biota.  Results of desertification on the
       Jornada include changes to shrub dominated communities and
       major soil changes.  We hypothesize that these shifts in
       vegetation have changed resources temporally for many of
       the consumers.  If grassland systems respond to rainfall
       without significant lags, but shrub systems do not, then
       consumer species should reflect these differences.  In
       addition, shifts from grassland to shrubland results in
       greater structural heterogeneity of the habitats.  We have
       hypothesized that consumer populations, diversity, and
       densities of some consumers will be higher in grasslands
       than in shrublands.  Diversity and/or densities are
       hypothesized to be related to the NPP of the sites.  Data
       will be collected for the duration of the LTER program in
       order to provide data to test these hypotheses.

10) Data set(s) associated with project:
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
                                                       Documentation
    Data set name                                      file name
    -------------------------------------------------  -------------
    Arthropod pitfall trap data                        ARTHPIT3.DSD


11) Publications resulting from project research:
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    <NONE>

12) Comments (Include any comments that here that more full describe
              this project):
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    <NONE>

13) Project file history log:
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    Project title     - Arthropod Pitfall Traps
    Project file name - ARTHPIT3.PRJ
    -------------------------------------------------------------
         mm/dd/yyyy      - Date of comment (month/day/year)
         Int             - Initials of person making comment
                           KJL - Kevin J. La Fleur
                           JPA - John P. Anderson
                           DCL - David C. Lightfoot
                           JL  - Jim Lenz
         Changes/Updates - List any changes made to document


    mm/dd/yyyy  Int  Changes/Updates
    ----------  ---  -----------------------------------------------
    03/08/1997  DCL  Project documentation completed by investigator
    06/13/2002  JL   Added Dataset ID and Project ID sections.
    06/17/2003  JPA  Removed species list as a separate data set;
                     listed file within arthpit3.dsd.

14) Project ID:
    -----------
    PRL2002022

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                           END OF PROJECT FILE
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