| Abstract | The Matador Project is a total ecosystem study of natural grassland that was developed as a Canadian contribution to the International Biological Programme. It is sponsored jointly by the National Research Council (NRC) (through its Canadian Committee for the International Biological Programme CCIBP) and the University of Saskatchewan. The University of Saskatchewan has provided some funding, but its major contribution has been in terms of space, services and professional participation of its staff. Direct funding has been almost exclusively provided by NRC through CCIBP. This Project has developed important international relationships with workers in similar undertakings and has become a leading institution through its position as "The International Centre for IBP Grasslands Studies".
The Project has been carried out over a period of seven and one-half years. The operational phase lasted from 1967 to 1972 and was followed by the analysis and synthesis phase which terminated in 1974. Our results are now being incorporated into international syntheses, the grassland part of which will consist of two volumes to be published by the Cambridge University Press, hopefully during 1975.
Progress in research during the operational phase of the Project was reported in five annual reports. Activities during the analysis and synthesis phase have resulted in the preparation of a series of technical reports of which this, the 69th, is the final one. In the present report we attempt to summarize the information already presented (for the most part) in the preceding technical reports. It should be evident that the space allocated to each of the various components of the ecosystem in the present report is not in accordance with the importance of each component in the functioning of the system nor is it a reflection of the amount of research done in each part of the system. This is because for some parts of the system summary reports have appeared already. Thus, the intensive studies of producers by biomass methods have been summarized as Technical Report No. 62, those with subsurface invertebrates as Technical Report No. 56, those of above-ground invertebrates as Technical Report No. 67. Consequently, these three phases of the study, which have contributed a large portion of the research, are summarized more briefly in this report than those aspects of the study which have not received previous summary treatment. |
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