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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. Information that is not available at this time,  
must be included when available. For these fields, enter
<NOT AVAILABLE>.  For fields that will not have information, enter
<NONE>. See data manager for any questions regarding this form.  
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 1) Project title:                     
    --------------
    Small mammal trapping (LTER-II)

 2) Responsible investigator:          
    -------------------------
    Walter G. Whitford

 3) Date research commenced (mm/dd/yyyy):
    -------------------------------------
    06/05/1990

 4) Date research terminated (mm/dd/yyyy):
    --------------------------------------
    11/02/1990

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

 6) Additional investigator(s):        
    ---------------------------
    David C. Lightfoot

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

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

 9) Informative abstract (Describe research project completely. 
    Include project OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS.)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
     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.

     Methods and locations.  Pitfall trap grids have been 
    installed at three creosotebush sites, three grassland sites,
    three mesquite sites, and  two tarbush sites.  Each grid consists 
    of four by five rows of traps at 10 meter intervals.  A mammal 
    live-trap is placed next to each pitfall trap.  Traps are opened 
    for one week in the late spring and one week in the late summer. 

     Small mammals are removed from the traps and assigned 
    individual numbers by removing a single digit from each foot.  
    Species, sex, and measurement data are taken for each animal.

10) Data set(s) associated with project:
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                                                       Documentation
    Data set title                                     file name
    -------------------------------------------------  -------------
    Small mammal trapping (LTER-II)                    SMAMMALS.DSD

11) Publications resulting from project research:
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    <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     - Small mammal trapping (LTER-II)
    Project file name - SMAMMALS.PRJ
    -------------------------------------------------------------
         mm/dd/yyyy      - Date of comment (month/day/year)
         Int             - Initials of person making comment
                           JPA = John P. Anderson
         Changes/Updates - List any changes made to document

    mm/dd/yyyy  Int  Changes/Updates
    ----------  ---  -----------------------------------------------
    06/02/1990  JPA  Project documentation completed by investigator
    03/24/1997  JPA  Converted documentation file to new format.
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                           END OF PROJECT FILE
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