William Lauenroth is Professor in the department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship at Colorado State University. Ingrid Burke is Professor in the department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship at Colorado State University, as well as the Co-Director of the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. She received her BS at Middlebury College in 1980, and her PhD in Botany at the University of Wyoming in 1987.

Much of what we know about grasslands stems from over 40 years of research at the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research station, which is complied in this volume by 34 authors. Moving beyond important early chapters that provide descriptive context for the shortgrass steppe, several contributions provide a deep population-level understanding of how the dominant grass, Bouteloua gracilis responds to disturbance and environmental drivers.

• 1. The Shortgrass Steppe: The Region and Research Sites ; 2. Climate of the Shortgrass Steppe ; 3. Soil Development and Distribution in the Shortgrass Steppe Ecosystem ; 4. Land Use History on the Shortgrass Steppe ; 5. Vegetation of the Shortgrass Steppe ; 6. The role of disturbances in shortgrass steppe community and ecosystem dynamics ; 7. Simulation of Disturbances and Recovery in Shortgrass Steppe Plant Communities ; 8. Ecology of mammals of shortgrass steppe ; 9. Birds of the Shortgrass Steppe ; 10. Insect Populations, Community Interactions, and Ecosystem Processes in Shortgrass Steppe ; 11. Trophic Structure and Nutrient Dynamics of the Belowground Food Web within the Rhizosphere of the Shortgrass Steppe ; 12. Net Primary Production in the Shortgrass Steppe ; 13. Soil Organic Matter and Nutrient Dynamics of Shortgrass Steppe Ecosystems ; 14. Soil-Atmosphere Exchange of Trace Gases in the Colorado Shortgrass Steppe ; 15. The Shortgrass Steppe and Ecosystem Modeling ; 16. Effects of Grazing on Vegetation ; 17. Cattle Grazing on the Shortgrass Steppe ; 18. Effects of Grazing on Abundance and Distribution of Shortgrass Steppe Consumers ; 19. The Future of the Shortgrass Steppe