Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe: A Long-Term Perspective summarizes and synthesizes more than 60 years of research that has been conducted throughout the shortgrass region. The shortgrass steppe was an important focus of the International Biological Programme's Grassland Biome project that ran from the late 1960s until the mid 1970s. The work conducted by the Grassland Biome project was preceded by almost 40 years of research by U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers - primarily from the Agricultural Research Service - and followed to the present by the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research project. Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe is an enormously rich source of data and insight into the structure and function of a semiarid grassland.