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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:
    --------------
    Transect Rabbit Herbage Wastage

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

 3) Date research commenced (mm/dd/yyyy):
    -------------------------------------
    11/11/1986

 4) Date research terminated (mm/dd/yyyy):
    --------------------------------------
    01/03/1989

 5) PI funding the research:
    ------------------------
    W.G. Whitford

 6) Additional investigator(s):
    ---------------------------
    John P. Anderson

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

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

 9) Informative abstract (Describe research project completely.
    Include project OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS.)
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    The study was undertaken to look at clipping, or browsing,  of
    plants by rabbits in the creosotebush and upper mixed basin zone on
    the bajada below Mt. Summerford that extends down to College Playa.

    At beginning of study the following questions were asked:
    1. How much nitrogen is in wastage (plants and rabbit pellets)?
    2. Does nitrogen vary seasonally in plants and pellets?
    3. Compare N in rabbit clippings with senescent litter in traps.
    4. Do rabbits select plants with stems with low resins in
    comparison to adjacent plants?  Do a one-time analysis to compare
    stems from rabbit clipped plants with adjacent unclipped plants.
    [This part of the study was not done.]

    Data collected: rabbit pellet weight and total N content, rabbit
    browse material by species and total N content.

10) Data set(s) associated with project:
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                                                       Documentation
    Data set name                                      file name
    -------------------------------------------------  -------------
    Rabbit Pellet Biomass                              HWPELLET.DSD
    Rabbit Pellet Total Nitrogen                       HWPELLTN.DSD
    Rabbit Browsed Plant Biomass                       HWBROWS.DSD
    Rabbit Browse Total Nitrogen                       HWBROWTN.DSD

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

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

13) Project file history log:
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    Project title     - Transect Rabbit Herbage Wastage
    Project file name - TRANRABB.PRJ
    -------------------------------------------------------------
         mm/dd/yyyy      - Date of comment (month/day/year)
         Int             - Initials of person making comment
         Changes/Updates - List any changes made to document

         KJL             - Kevin J. La Fleur
         JPA             - John P. Anderson
         MAB             - Michelle A. Buonopane

    mm/dd/yyyy  Int  Changes/Updates
    ----------  ---  -----------------------------------------------
    11/25/2002  MAB  Updated to current form.
    03/04/2003  JPA  Updated project title.

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                           END OF PROJECT FILE
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