Download or read book Assessing Initial Floristic Integrity of Burned and Unburned Tallgrass Prairie Restorations at the Emiquon Preserve Illinois written by Christy Troxell-Thomas and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Evaluating North American Tallgrass Prairie Quality Using The Auchenorrhyncha Quality Index written by Adam M. Wallner and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Auchenorrhyncha (i.e., leafhoppers, treehoppers, spittlebugs, and planthoppers) represent some most diverse groups of herbivorous insects in the tallgrass prairie, they have close associations with many native prairie grasses and forbs, and respond in predictable ways to changes in grassland degradation. These attributes make Auchenorrhyncha ideal candidates in the development of a habitat quality index to measure tallgrass prairie integrity. Chapter 1 provides a detailed introduction of ecological integrity, methods used in measuring tallgrass prairie integrity, and the usefulness of insects in assessing prairie integrity. Chapter 2 describes the development of the Auchenorrhyncha Quality Index (AQI), and examines how changes in robustness (vacuum and sweeping) and sensitivity (changes in time of year and prairie community) affected two versions of the AQI (with abundance [AQIw/N] and without abundance [AQIw/outN]). The AQI was computed by assigning each auchenorrhynchan species a Coefficient of Conservatism (CC) value, which ranged from 0 (habitat-generalist/tolerant to degradation) to 18 (prairie-dependent/intolerant to degradation). These CC values are averaged and combined with species richness producing the AQIw/outN or these values are summed and weighted with abundance and combined with species richness producing the AQIw/N. The robustness and sensitivity of both versions of the AQI were analyzed by collecting Auchenorrhyncha from 35 sites in 4 states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri) over 3 years (2004, 2005, and 2008) using a combination of sweeping and/or vacuuming from transects and/or 5x5m plots from wet-mesic, loess, glacial-drift, gravel hill prairies, and sand prairies. ANOVAs showed that both versions of the AQI were insensitive to changes in time of year and prairie community at the landscape level when sampling from four transects using a vacuum but both versions of the AQI exhibited variation on individual sites when vacuum or sweep sampling throughout the growing season and on wet prairies. Chapter 3 examined the ability of the AQI and related measures of Auchenorryncha integrity, and vegetation-based measures of integrity and diversity in discriminating glacial-drift hill prairie quality on 14 sites in Illinois; and examined the relationships between Auchenorrhyncha integrity and diversity and vegetation integrity and diversity. Both Auchenorrhyncha and vegetation integrity discriminated quality in similar ways and prairie Auchenorrhyncha diversity was positively associated with native prairie grasses. Chapter 4 examined the effects of prescribed burning on the AQI and related measures of Auchenorrhyncha integrity and diversity on 22 loess hill prairies in Illinois. These results showed that recently burned and frequently burned sites exhibited lower Auchenorrhnyncha integrity and diversity values than unburned prairies.

Download or read book Tallgrass Prairie Restoration in the Midwestern and Eastern United States written by Harold Gardner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work advocates the restoration of the North American tallgrass prairie, which is rapidly disappearing. Historical descriptions of prairie aesthetics are outlined. As we are experiencing a worldwide mixing of plant species, prairie restoration is particularly important. Plants alien to North America do not readily support insect populations, including all animal species higher on the food chain. Prairie restoration methods are described for amateurs, academics, and land managers. Some of the techniques described are growing crops for seed production, times of seed gathering for specific species, facile seed processing for amateurs, land preparation, segregation of seed into its preference for habitat, and required seed treatment for germination. Over 200 species are described that comprise the predominant species found in tallgrass prairie nature preserves, as well as degraded prairies. Some additional plants of especial interest are also described. The appendix tabulates all likely species found on prairies regardless of their scarcity. Safe fire management of prairies is described in detail. Finally, methods of controlling aggressive alien weeds by herbicides are detailed.

Download or read book Tallgrass Prairie Restoration in the Midwestern and Eastern United States written by Harold Gardner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-11-19 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work advocates the restoration of the North American tallgrass prairie, which is rapidly disappearing. Historical descriptions of prairie aesthetics are outlined. As we are experiencing a worldwide mixing of plant species, prairie restoration is particularly important. Plants alien to North America do not readily support insect populations, including all animal species higher on the food chain. Prairie restoration methods are described for amateurs, academics, and land managers. Some of the techniques described are growing crops for seed production, times of seed gathering for specific species, facile seed processing for amateurs, land preparation, segregation of seed into its preference for habitat, and required seed treatment for germination. Over 200 species are described that comprise the predominant species found in tallgrass prairie nature preserves, as well as degraded prairies. Some additional plants of especial interest are also described. The appendix tabulates all likely species found on prairies regardless of their scarcity. Safe fire management of prairies is described in detail. Finally, methods of controlling aggressive alien weeds by herbicides are detailed.

Download or read book Plant Functional Group Composition in Tallgrass Prairie written by Valerie A. Sivick and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: