Long-Term Effects of Burning Festuca and Stipa-Agropyron Grasslands

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Allen Press and Society for Range Management are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Range Management. AbstractThe effects of early spring burning on current year standing crop, litter, and total standing crop (current year standing crop plus litter) were examined in Festuca-and Stipa-Agropyron-dominated communities in central Saskatchewan over an 11-year period in a paired design with burned sites compared to adjacent control sites that were not burned. In Festuca communities current year standing crop was reduced in the first and third years (P = 0.010) after burning. Burning Stipa-Agropyron-communities tended to reduce current year standing crop, but the differences were not significant (P < 0.050) compared to control. Increasing precipitation stimulated current year standing crop after burning Festuca (P < 0.001, r2 = 0.33) and Stipa-Agropyron (P < 0.001, r2= 0.55) communities. Litter and current year standing crop were correlated (R2 = 0.24, P = 0.002) for Festuca indicating beneficial and detrimental effects of litter on production at low and high amounts, respectively. Litter and current year standing crop were not correlated (P = 0.964) for Stipa-Agropyron. In both communities total standing crop increased until about the eighth year after burning while the mass of litter appeared to reach a plateau around 11 years.

Short‐Term Vegetation Recovery after a Grassland Fire in Lithuania: The Effects of Fire Severity, Slope Position and Aspect

“…Despite the extended research carried out about fire history and fire effects in boreal forests, little is known about post‐fire vegetation recovery in boreal grasslands (Weber & Stocks, ; Bond et al , ). Most of the studies have been conducted in North American and Scandinavian countries, especially focused on fire regime (Weber & Flannigan, ; Camill & Clark, ; Bachelet et al , ), net primary production, evapotranspiration (Kang et al , ) and diversity (Hansson & Fogelfors, ; Wahlman & Milberg, ; Plypec & Romo, ; Antonsen & Olsson, ). Many of these works were medium‐term studies (e.g.…”

Co‐producing simulation models to inform resource management: a case study from southwest South Dakota

“…Any time a grazing or fire transition occurred in a cell, biomass was reduced accordingly. For fire transitions, 85% of both live and litter biomass was removed (Pylypec and Romo , Augustine et al. , NPS Northern Great Plains Fire Ecology program, unpublished manuscript ).…”

Above-Ground Net Primary Production for Elymus lanceolatus and Hesperostipa curtiseta After a Single Defoliation Event

“…Greater herbage removal, removal of litter, a different range site, and different associated species in the study of Kowalenko and Romo (1998b) all might have factored into divergent responses of northern wheatgrass to defoliation compared with the present study. Removing litter reduces plant production in the Brown Soil Zone of the Canadian Prairies (Willms et al 1986), but primary production is unaffected by amounts of litter in Stipa-Agropyron grasslands in the Dark Brown Soil Zone of Saskatchewan, presumably because the effectiveness of precipitation is greater than in the Brown Soil Zone (Pylypec and Romo 2003). Derner and Briske (2001) suggested rhizomatous species might occupy microsites in which soils have greater concentrations of carbon and nitrogen.…”