{"title":"Kings Creek NEON - United States of America","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/","suffix":"0f2b496c-af20-404d-8100-9e5ed7f42b66"},"type":"site","created":"2020-05-25T09:36:50+02:00","changed":"2025-09-17T14:55:37+02:00","attributes":{"affiliation":{"networks":[{"network":{"name":"GERI","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/networks\/","suffix":"c3abdc60-49f1-49db-81fe-863b7dbb21d3"}},"siteCode":null,"verified":true},{"network":{"name":"NEON","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/networks\/","suffix":"fd9fbc88-0baa-4d02-b824-dc29f721782c"}},"siteCode":"KING","verified":true}],"projects":null},"contact":{"siteManager":[{"type":"person","name":"Becky Eaves","email":"beaves@battelleecology.org","orcid":null}],"operatingOrganisation":null,"metadataProvider":[{"type":"person","name":"Melissa Marquez","email":"marquez@battelleecology.org","orcid":null}],"fundingAgency":null,"siteUrl":[{"title":null,"value":"https:\/\/www.neonscience.org\/field-sites\/king"}]},"general":{"abstract":"King\u0027s Creek (KING) is an aquatic NEON field site located in the Flint Hills region of Kansas just 10 km (6 mi.) south of Manhattan, KS. The site is encompassed within a 13.2 km2 (3260 acre) watershed within the Konza Prairie Biological Station, which is hosted by the Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University. It is a second-order creek that drains a watershed of mixed agricultural, pasture and tallgrass prairie land. The surrounding region consists of grasslands, forests and agricultural land cover types and includes the largest remaining areas of unplowed tallgrass prairie in North America. KING is part of the NEON Prairie Peninsula Domain (D06), which stretches from Kansas through Nebraska and Iowa to southern Minnesota, and east to encompass Illinois and most of Indiana. The Domain hosts four other NEON field sites, one other aquatic and three terrestrial, all of which are located in Kansas. KING is colocated with the KONA terrestrial field site. Land use and land use management are key grand challenge themes for this Domain.","citation":null,"relatedIdentifiers":null,"status":{"label":"Operational","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/elter_cl\/10772"},"yearEstablished":2015,"yearClosed":null,"relatedSites":[{"typeOfRelationship":{"label":"groups with","uri":"null"},"listOfSites":[{"type":"site","title":"Konza Prairie Agroecosystem NEON - United States of America","id":{"prefix":"https:\/\/deims.org\/","suffix":"14360240-f2ac-4b93-9b0e-a4713d493e05"},"changed":"2025-09-17T15:06:42+0200"}]}],"siteName":"Kings Creek NEON","shortName":"KING","siteType":"Platform","protectionLevel":null,"landUse":null,"images":[{"url":"https:\/\/deims.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-06\/kings%20creek.jpg","alt":"King\u0027s Creek salt injection"}]},"environmentalCharacteristics":{"airTemperature":{"yearlyAverage":12.7,"monthlyAverage":null,"unit":"\u00b0C","referencePeriod":null},"precipitation":{"yearlyAverage":860,"monthlyAverage":null,"unit":"mm","referencePeriod":null},"biogeographicalRegion":null,"biome":"freshwater_rivers","ecosystemType":[{"label":"Deciduous Forest","uri":null},{"label":"Forest","uri":null},{"label":"Fresh Water Rivers","uri":null},{"label":"Rivers","uri":null}],"eunisHabitat":null,"landforms":null,"geoBonBiome":["Fresh water rivers","Terrestrial"],"geology":"KING lies above mafic metavolcanic rock, which is a metamorphic volcanic rock having abundant dark-colored minerals, typically feldspar, amphibole, and\/or pyroxene. It is part of the Council Grove Group, a geologic group from the early Permian age containing limestone interbedded with gray, red, and green shale. The creek itself is composed of alluvium, a sediment deposited by flowing water made of gravel, sand, silt, clay, or other rock particulates. In King\u0027s Creek, the substrate consists of cobble, boulder, pebbles, sand, and clay.","hydrology":"KING is a second-order wadeable stream that drains a mixed agricultural, pasture, and tallgrass prairie-dominated watershed. The flow regime of the creek is considered intermittent and flashy; discharge can be very low or entirely dry during an annual period lasting from August through February, when spring rains recharge the water table. High-intensity storms may cause flow to increase several orders of magnitude over the course of a few hours during any time of year. The creek feeds into the McDowell creek, which then feeds into the Kansas river. As well as being a part of NEON, King\u0027s Creek is a part of the Hydrologic Benchmark Network and is the only basin in that network to drain pristine, native tallgrass prairie.","soils":null,"vegetation":"The creek flows through native tallgrass prairie; however, the NEON study reach is shaded during the growing season by deciduous gallery forest in the riparian area. Mature bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), walnut (Juglans sp.), elm (Ulmus sp.), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), and hickory (Carya sp.) trees extend five to one hundred meters from the stream channel. Beyond the gallery forest riparian area, tallgrass prairie dominates the area. Shrubs, bushes, vines, and forbs form a majority of the ground cover."},"geographic":{"boundaries":null,"coordinates":"POINT (-96.60336 39.10506)","country":["United States of America"],"elevation":{"avg":324,"min":333,"max":443,"unit":"msl"},"size":{"value":1320,"unit":"ha"},"relatedLocations":null},"focusDesignScale":{"experiments":{"design":"partly experimentation","scale":"catchment scale"},"observations":{"design":"mainly observation","scale":"entire catchment"},"observedProperties":[{"label":"DNA sequence","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/21400"},{"label":"above ground biomass","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22025"},{"label":"air temperature","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22035"},{"label":"atmospheric parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20937"},{"label":"biological parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20940"},{"label":"chemical parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/10333"},{"label":"ecosystem parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20939"},{"label":"genetic parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20942"},{"label":"heat flux","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22130"},{"label":"land cover","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22142"},{"label":"landscape parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20943"},{"label":"latent heat","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22154"},{"label":"leaf area index","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22157"},{"label":"ozone concentration","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22178"},{"label":"plant diversity","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22191"},{"label":"precipitation intensity","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/22204"},{"label":"soil carbon dioxyde flux","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/21939"},{"label":"soil moisture content","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/10039"},{"label":"soil parameter","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/20944"},{"label":"species abundance","uri":"http:\/\/vocabs.lter-europe.net\/EnvThes\/10018"}]},"infrastructure":{"accessibleAllYear":true,"accessType":null,"allPartsAccessible":null,"maintenanceInterval":null,"permanentPowerSupply":true,"operation":{"permanent":true,"notes":null,"siteVisitInterval":null},"notes":null,"collection":null,"data":{"policy":{"url":null,"rights":null,"notes":null}}},"relatedResources":null,"projectRelated":{"lter":{"lterSiteClassification":null}}}}