Data describe the activity of soil extracellular enzymes collected approximately every month in 2015 from the Belowground Plot Experiment. The measured enzymes depolymerize soil organic matter to release labile carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Soil carbon and nitrogen were measured in July 2015 only, since these soil variables are not expected to change monthly.

This dataset contains carbon and nitrogen concentrations and stocks in total soil organic matter and its fractions from the Konza Prairie Irrigation Transect Experiment. The dataset also includes pyrogenic organic matter C and N, as well as microbial amino sugars and root quality measurements. Data are availble for irrigated and control plots. Total pyrogenic and unburned soil organic matter C and N are availble for both the upland and lowland positions at 0-5, 5-15, and 15-30cm depth increments.

We report the results of a 30-year experiment at Konza Prairie, a mesic grassland in the Central Great Plains, under fire suppression (20-year fire return intervals) and experimental presence/absence of bison. Based on remote sensing, the land cover of deciduous trees was lower (6% grazed vs. 16% ungrazed) in bison-grazed areas. There was no difference between shrub land cover (42% grazed and 41%) and herbaceous land cover was higher in the grazed vs the ungrazed (51% grazed and 40% ungrazed).

Using herbarium specimens spanning 133 years and field-collected measurements, we assessed intraspecific trait (leaf structure and stomata) variability from grass species in the Great Plains of North America. We focused on two widespread, closely-related grasses from tribe Paniceae: Dichanthelium oligosanthes subsp. scribnerianum (C3) and Panicum virgatum (C4). Thirty-one specimens per taxon were sampled from local herbaria from the years 1887 – 2013 to assess trait responses across time to changes in atmospheric [CO2] and growing season precipitation and temperature.

Plant xylem water samples were collected from Cornus drummondii (rough-leaf dogwood), Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem), Quercus macrocarpa (bur oak), and Quercus muehlenbergii (chinquapin oak) during the summer of 2016. Soil cores were also collected during the summer of 2016 to collect soil water from the surface to 200 cm depth. Isotope values (δ18O and δ2H) were analyzed for each water sample to determine depth of plant water uptake.

A variety of leaf-level physiological and structural traits were collected on seven species of encroaching shrubs at Konza Prairie Biological Station during the summer of 2022. Shrub species spanned an order of magnitude in abundance. These data were used to assess if the most abundant encroaching species at Konza Prairie have common growth forms and physiology or unique traits that differentiate their carbon- and water-use strategies.

This dataset contains the first five years (2014-2018) of the effect of nitrogen addition on species richness, species evenness (Evar) and productivity for a long-term nitrogen addition gradient experiment in two North American grasslands: a semi-arid shortgrass steppe and a mesic tallgrass prairie. Fertilization with time-release urea has been on-going since 2014 in a gradient of eight levels: 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 g/m-2.