Canopy cover and groundlayer vegetation dynamics in a fire managed eastern sand savanna

Bowles, Marlin L.; Apfelbaum, Steven I.; Haney, Alan; Lehnhardt, S; Post, Tom

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2011.08.036

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…S6.1). Variation with site may be due to environmental differences among sites (MacDougall & Turkington ) and/or variation in light (Bowles et al ) – a likely legacy of previous management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Biennial Fire and Clipping on Woody and Herbaceous Ground Layer Vegetation: Implications for Restoration and Management of Oak Barren Ecosystems

Petersen

Drewa

2014

Restoration Ecology

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Savannas and oak barrens are threatened in North America, due, in part, to removal of natural disturbance regimes. However, the periodic prescribed fires used in savanna and oak barren management sometimes accelerate the formation of a shrub layer, which can displace herbaceous species. This may be because periodic low severity fires act much like clipping, topkilling shrubs, yet allowing them to accumulate reserves in intervals without fire for more vigorous sprouting. To test this, we compared biennial dormant season burn prescriptions to a fire surrogate (clipping) using three oak barrens sites in the Bluegrass Region of southern Ohio. Fire and clipping treatments did little to suppress the resprouting ability of shrubs (woody stems <2 cm dbh), which regrew rapidly and in equivalent densities following treatment. However, both treatments reduced shrub cover, resulting in a 35% decrease in shrub cover over the course of the study. In contrast, non-manipulated plots experienced a 44% increase in shrub cover over the same time period. Despite this reduction in shrub cover, treatments had no effect on herbaceous plant cover, richness, diversity, or evenness. These results suggest that the use of biennial prescribed dormant season fire, as employed in this study, is equivalent to clipping, and although effective at temporarily reducing shrub cover, is not effective in reducing shrub densities or resprouting potential. Thus, burning during marginal conditions should be avoided for achieving a short-term restoration goal of shrub removal, but can be effective for maintaining the current shrub layer.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Biennial Fire and Clipping on Woody and Herbaceous Ground Layer Vegetation: Implications for Restoration and Management of Oak Barren Ecosystems

Petersen

Drewa

2014

Restoration Ecology

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“…Supplementing further canopy reduction with increased frequency of fire would enhance flowering, seed production, and establishment of C4 grasses and prairie vegetation (Bowles and Jones 2013). Burning at a rate of three fires decade À1 can increase species diversity and cause a shift toward C4 grass cover if it is accompanied by a decrease in the tree canopy to below 50 % cover (Bowles et al 2011), and biennial burning may promote even greater diversity in savanna GL vegetation (Tester Table 1 canopy and diversity axis correlations and probabilities; see Table 3 for species axis correlations and probabilities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinning effects on canopy structure and ground layer diversity in a burned mesic oak savanna

Bowles

Lawrence

Antlitz

2017

The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society

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“…Yet it remains unknown how long savanna understory species can persist without frequent fire, making it urgent to restore remnant savannas. Returning historic disturbance regimes (e.g., periodic low fire; Peterson & Reich, , ; Weiher, ; Weiher & Howe, ) and initiating management techniques to reduce canopy cover (grazing, Hedtcke, Posner, Rosemeyer, & Albrecht, ; thinning, Brudvig & Asbjornsen, ) could allow savanna species composition (Bowles, Apfelbaum, Haney, Lehnhardt, & Post, ) and function (Brudvig & Asbjornsen, ) to return. Our data suggest there may still be time to revitalize remnant savanna sites and the prairie‐savanna‐forest mosaic, but the time is now.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sixty years of community change in the prairie–savanna–forest mosaic of Wisconsin

Ladwig

Damschen

Rogers

2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Biodiversity loss is a global concern, and maintaining habitat complexity in naturally patchy landscapes can help retain regional diversity. A mosaic of prairie, savanna, and forest historically occurred across central North America but currently is highly fragmented due to human land conversion. It is unclear how each habitat type now contributes to regional diversity. Using legacy data, we resurveyed savanna plant communities originally surveyed in the 1950s to compare change in savannas to that in remnant forests and prairies. Savanna community structure and composition changed substantially over the past 60 years. Tree canopy density nearly doubled and many prairie and savanna specialist species were replaced by forest and non‐native species. All three habitats gained and lost many species since the 1950s, resulting in large changes in community composition from local colonizations and extinctions. Across all three habitats, regional species extinctions matched that of regional colonization resulting in no net change in regional species richness. Synthesis—Despite considerable species turnover within savannas, many species remain within the broader prairie–savanna–forest mosaic. Both regional extinctions and colonizations were high over the past 60 years, and maintaining the presence of all three community types—prairie, savanna and forest—on the landscape is critical to maintaining regional biodiversity.

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Canopy cover and groundlayer vegetation dynamics in a fire managed eastern sand savanna

Cited by 14 publications

References 30 publications

Effects of Biennial Fire and Clipping on Woody and Herbaceous Ground Layer Vegetation: Implications for Restoration and Management of Oak Barren Ecosystems

Effects of Biennial Fire and Clipping on Woody and Herbaceous Ground Layer Vegetation: Implications for Restoration and Management of Oak Barren Ecosystems

Thinning effects on canopy structure and ground layer diversity in a burned mesic oak savanna

Sixty years of community change in the prairie–savanna–forest mosaic of Wisconsin

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