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Two branches of Kings Creek run through
the Konza Prairie watershed. These streams provide opportunity to study an ecosystem
quite different from that of the tallgrass prairie even though they are part of
the larger grassland biome.
There are are a variety of factors that affect the number and kind of organisms to be found in the streams on Konza Prairie. Water movement and geology effect the creek bed where areas of erosion and soil deposition are taking place. Floods change the stream channel in major ways, sometimes washing out stream invertebrates, sometimes cutting off a meandering loop or oxbow. A new short-cut channel may result, eventually becoming the main channel of the stream. Permanent camera stands have been set up to photo the stream channel from two different positions. The photos below were taken from the same place on different dates. Look for changes in the stream bed, the vegetation and the little waterfall. |
What differences
do you see?
What might be the cause of these
differences?
What do you think the dates have to do with these differences?
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June 14, l999 |
June 28, l999 |
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August 18, 1999
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The photo gallery below contains pictures from several years at the two different sites. |
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Amount of precipitation is a primary factor determining the fauna in these streams. Average monthly precipitation on Konza Prairie is 5.7 cm during the winter and 27.5 cm during the summer. The seasonal changes in the amount of water are due to changes in temperature as well as rainfall. Evaporation, affected by temperature and wind, plays a role in the total amount of water available. Precipitation exceeds actual evaporation for most of the year except for summer. Click on the "LTER Stream Flow Data" button at the bottom of this page to see real data from one branch of Kings Creek. There are some "queries" to help you ask questions of the database. To see the complete data sets used by Konza researchers, go to http://www.konza.ksu.edu/data_catalog/manhattan/ . |
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Want to see a graph of real-time data for stream flow in
Kings Creek on the Konza Prairie?
Click on the "Stream Invertebrates" button to see the kinds of things living in Kings Creek. |
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