Download or read book Effects of Pine Litter Raking on Plant Community Composition and Soil Seed Banks in Longleaf Pine Savannas written by Jordan Andrew Winter and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savannas have been reduced to a small percentage of their original range in the southeastern United States. These savannas are fire-reliant and require frequent, low-intensity fires to maintain understory plant diversity. Currently, many landowners rake pine litter off the forest floor of longleaf pine savannas for subsequent sale in horticulture. Though raking is a common practice, little is known about the effects of raking on the understory plant community, the soil seed bank, or fire intensity. I conducted my research in two longleaf pine savanna sites where raking has occurred"--Title leaf.
Download or read book Litter in Longleaf Pine Stands Thinned to Prescribed Densities written by William D. Boyer and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mechanisms Controlling Plant Establishment During Restoration of Abandoned Agricultural Land in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem written by Quinn Sorenson and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land-use legacies have long-lasting impacts on ecological communities. They alter the soil structure and chemistry as well as plant community composition. In grasslands and savannas, the negative effects of land-use legacies are exacerbated by disrupted fire regimes, which result in shifts from open communities with herb-dominated understories to closed-canopy woodlands and forests. Restoration of fire-excluded communities consists of removing woody vegetation and reintroducing a frequent, low-intensity fire regime; however, agricultural legacies may impact the outcome of restoration. Here, I investigate factors that may limit the restoration of longleaf pine plant communities. I first use a large-scale, well-replicated experiment that manipulates canopy thinning across plots with and without a history of agriculture to investigate the role of belowground competition on seedling establishment (Ch. 1) and plant community composition (Ch. 2). Then, in this same experiment, I ask how these factors affect plant resources such as light, nutrients, and water by examining plant biomass allocation to roots, stems, and leaves as well as specific leaf area (Ch. 3). Lastly, I investigate whether using diversionary seeding (cheap high-calorie seed intended to divert seed predator attention) as a restoration practice alters seed predation rates for native species (Ch. 4). Belowground competition reduced establishment equally across land-use history and canopy thinning treatments but varied with local resource gradients. Surprisingly, seedlings established better in post-agricultural habitat when it remained unthinned. Land-use history and canopy thinning likely did not affect the strength of competition on seedling establishment because their respective effects are temporally separated by season. Overall, efforts to reduce the negative effects of land-use history should be targeted early in the growing season when land-use history affects establishment. In addition to seedling establishment, belowground competition decreases species density (number of species per area). Like seedling establishment, the effect of belowground competition did not depend on land-use history or canopy thinning but did interact with resources gradients depending on the habitat context. Additionally, belowground competition reduced the survival of species with a faster life-history strategy (i.e., higher specific leaf area), but this only occurred in unthinned habitat. This work provides evidence that community assembly is not a sequential process and that abiotic and biotic filters interact. The effects of land-use history, canopy thinning, and belowground competition on plant establishment and community properties are likely mediated through differences in plant resources. Isolating the limiting resource for plant growth is challenging because land-use history and canopy thinning affect multiple resources simultaneously. I found that some plants adjust their biomass allocation in response to land-use history but only in unthinned habitat. Canopy thinning supersedes the effect of land-use history suggesting that it has a strong impact on limiting resources. Remarkably, the greatest difference in biomass allocation between thinned and unthinned habitat was in remnant patches. This might suggest that resources in the unthinned remnant are very different from a restored state and likely unsuitable for savanna species. Finally, adding diversionary seed reduced native seed predation by 5-50% depending on native seed size and sustained its effect ten and twenty days after diversionary seed was added. Arthropods were the primary seed predator guild and diversionary seed was an effective technique for reducing seed predation. Rodent seed predation did not contribute substantially to native seed predation, so it remains unclear how effective diversionary seeding is for rodents. Overall, adding diversionary seed generated a 50% reduction in loss of target seeds to predators, well beyond the threshold of a 3% reduction needed for cost effectiveness.
Download or read book Longleaf Pine Site Response to Repeated Fertilization and Forest Floor Removal by Raking and Prescribed Burning written by Kim H. Ludovici and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Removal of forest floor litter by pine needle raking and prescribed burning is a common practice in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) stands on Coastal Plain sites in the Southeastern United States. Repeated removal of litter by raking and the loss of surface organic matter from controlled burns can affect the already low fertility of these sites. Although fertilization may compensate for some nutrient losses, long-term changes in soil chemical properties may still negatively affect productivity. In this experiment, we continue work that examined the effect of burning, fertilization, and moderate and intensive litter raking on tree growth, litter production, and soil chemistry in longleaf pine stands over 6 years. This report discusses treatment response 9 years after selective thinning was initiated in a longleaf pine plantation in Aiken County, SC. Litter raking treatments, when compared to the control treatment, did not significantly affect tree height or basal area growth, although averages were larger in the fertilized litter raking treatments when compared to the non-fertilized litter raking treatments. However, longleaf pine litter production declined by up to 30 percent in both burned and raked treatments without fertilizer application compared to the unfertilized control. Fertilization significantly increased litter production on control plots, and it appeared to mitigate the reductions in needle fall on burned and raked plots. Soil nitrogen concentrations increased on fertilized and unfertilized burned and raked treatments when compared to the corresponding control. Results indicate moderate fertilization can sustain long-term litter removal and maintain soil nutrients in longleaf pine stands.
Download or read book Short term Effects of Longleaf Pine Straw Raking on Plant Diversity and Community Dynamics in Croatan National Forest North Carolina written by Lisa Ann Kelly and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Effects of Plot Size and Location on Seedbank Richness and Community Composition in an Experimentally Fragmented Landscape written by Julie Marie Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Landscape fragmentation studies focused on vegetation have played a crucial role in advancing conservation, land management, and restoration approaches. However, the seedbank, a soil's reservoir of viable seeds or propagules able to potentially regenerate vegetation above ground, have largely been ignored. Despite their usefulness in furthering our understanding of successional mechanisms, ecological restoration and management, the effects of fragmentation on seedbank community structure and species richness are still unknown. Further, the biological and theoretical framework established for above ground vegetation cannot be assumed to fully apply to seedbanks due to the biological and abiotic driven mediation of similarity between the two. Thus, it follows that seedbanks potentially respond differently to fragmentation. In this paper, I examine the effects of fragmentation on the diversity and community composition of seedbanks, using 2014 seedbank data collected from an experimentally fragmented landscape in Kansas University's Nelson Environmental Study Area, a 12 ha experimentally fragmented landscape established in 1984 to study the spatial dynamics of succession. Specifically, I address the following questions: (1) how does patch size and plot location effect seedbanks density and species richness? (2) does patch size and plot location effect seedbank community composition? (3) what are possible drivers of differences in the community composition in seedbanks? While I found a lack of significant differences in seedbank richness based on patch size or plot location, there were significant differences in community composition based on patch size and plot location, which were further explored through an indicator species analysis and a confirmed spatial auto-correlation. Thought to be able to mitigate the effects of fragmentation through their ability to maintain ecological diversity and the coexistence of species, seedbanks could provide a useful tool in the future recovery or stabilization of plant communities. Thus, seedbanks are in need of more intensive study to help discern their potential ecological role in an increasingly fragmented landscapehe.
Download or read book Nursery Cultural Practices and Morphological Attributes of Longleaf Pine Bare root Stock as Indicators of Early Field Performance written by Glyndon E. Hatchell and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Brown spot Resistance in Natural Stands of Longleaf Pine Seedlings written by William Davis Boyer and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Woody Plant Effects on Soil Seed Banks in a Central Texas Savanna written by Lana E Ruiseco and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Drivers of Compositional Trajectories in Reference and Restored Pine Savanna Communities written by Diane Harshbarger and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wet pine savannas are among the most diverse ecosystems in North America and provide critical habitat for many species but have seen a dramatic decline in size over the past century due to urbanization, logging, and fire suppression. Coastal pine savannas are also vulnerable to anticipated effects of global climate change. Models of climate change predict rapid sea-level rise along the northern Gulf of Mexico and more intense hurricanes. Restoration of these fragile wetland ecosystems is needed, but the effects of climate change on restored, as well as remnant communities, are unknown. This research aimed to compare resiliency of remnant and restored plant communities to simulated hurricane disturbance. I hypothesized that species composition within both site types will be altered following experimental storm surge, and restored plots will follow a different compositional trajectory due to site conditions including invasion by non-target species and disturbed soils. I compared community composition and soil properties between remnant and restored sites experiencing experimental storm surge. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordinations and a cluster analysis was used to visualize dissimilarities in composition and permutational analysis of similarity (PERMANOVA) was used to compare composition among treatment, site, and time. Repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare soil water conductivity and available ammonium over the course of the study. Results from compositional surveys suggested no significant effect of treatment on community composition, but there were significant vectors for soil moisture and ammonium resulting in different compositional trends and an apparent degree of divergence over time between the two site types. Soil characteristics (texture and bulk density) and pressure from neighboring plants within the restored site are also likely contributing to differences between the two site types. As climate change continues to alter disturbance regimes that shape coastal ecosystems, it will be necessary to assess structure and function of remnant and potentially novel plant communities and their capacity for adaptation.
Download or read book Pinestraw Raking and Fertilization Impacts on the Nutrition and Productivity of Longleaf Pine written by David Preston Blevins and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Understory Plant Community Dynamics in Response to Stand Structure Characteristics in Longleaf Pine Savannas written by Sairandhri Arun Lapalikar and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our results show that the community responded to disturbance by adjusting trait values rather than causing any change in overall functional diversity. Our results suggest that the community has limited functional groups into which species diversity is distributed.
Download or read book Litter in Longleaf Pine Stands Thinned to Prescribed Densities written by William Davis Boyer and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assessing Seed Bank Contribution to Landward Expansion of Coastal Wetland Communities and Responses to Fire written by Molly S. Hacker and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land loss is a major threat to coastal wetlands of the northern Gulf of Mexico due to the impacts and interactions of sea level rise, regional subsidence, and anthropogenic changes to land cover and sediment supply. Here, coastlines are rapidly converting to open water due to an inability of coastal systems to keep pace with sea level rise via marsh migration due to barriers in the landscape, including dense shrub encroachment from fire suppression of inland communities. Fire may play an important role in promoting resiliency by in two ways, first by reducing or removing woody encroachment, allowing species to be released to migrate inland, second, by promoting primary productivity of herbaceous vegetation, which in turn, may promote vertical expansion. Where elimination of barriers is not possible (i.e., roads, industry and infrastructure), assisted migration of coastal communities landward (via translocation) may be also be a viable solution to bypass these barriers. This research is focused on the potential contribution of seed banks in landward migration of species, the role that fire plays in compositional change, and how seed banks compare to translocated communities when introduced into new environments. Here, seed bank dynamics were assessed and compared to aboveground vegetation of naturally regenerating and reciprocally transplanted (translocated) sods through time, with and without fire. The objectives of this study were to examine: 1) richness and abundance of species in the seed bank among vegetation zones of the coastal transition gradient; 2) effect of fire on expression of the soil seed bank; 3) emergence patterns and the degree of mixing/dispersion of dominant species within the seed bank among zones; 4) similarity of species composition of seed bank to that of the standing vegetation, pre- and post-fire; 5) similarity of species composition of the seed bank to that of the inter-zonally transplanted sods, with and without fire; and 6) fire behaviors through fuel loads and fire temperatures across zones. Results demonstrate the effect of zone on the composition, species richness and propagule density of the seed bank, and differences in similarity of the composition of the seed bank and standing vegetation. Fire did not appear to affect the composition of the seed bank. Ordinations indicate that seed bank communities are more widely distributed than standing vegetation assemblages. An overlap of communities was observed in each zone of the seed bank except salt marsh. Reciprocally transplanted sods that were burned prior to translocation were more similar to seed bank composition than no-fire transplants. Similarity, related to habitat preference, was most retained when sods were transplanted one zone away, and when transplanted upslope. A series of Procrustes analyses was conducted for combinations of seed bank treatments to standing vegetation of naturally regenerated and reciprocally transplanted plots of varying survey periods. Results showed that seed bank composition was most similar to the standing vegetation of the same survey period, and least similar for no-fire seed bank to transplanted plots surveyed 15 months after transplant. That the no-fire transplant plots were less similar to seed bank than burned transplant plot indicate that similarity between the seed bank and standing vegetation may be retained with fire. Comparisons of the Jaccard's Similarity Coefficient of transplanted plot to seed bank with and without fire showed that overall, plots that had been burned were more similar to their source plots than those that had not been burned, across all zones. This study provides insight to zonation patterns of the seed bank across the coastal coenocline of the northern Gulf of Mexico, and compositional similarity of the seed bank to both naturally generated and reciprocally transplanted propagules, in order to understand the how these communities respond to sea level rise, how they may be managed with fire, and how plant species respond to conditions across zone, thereby the potential contribution of the seed bank to landward migration and the promotion of resiliency of coastal communities through facilitation of lateral migration in response sea level rise.
Download or read book Impact of Interacting Disturbances on Longleaf Pine Communities written by Becky Lynne Estes and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disturbance in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.) communities alters the structure, function, and composition of the forest. Species heterogeneity and diversity were investigated at the Escambia Experimental Forest located in Brewton, AL in an attempt to document spatial effects of past disturbance. To identify the short term effects of present disturbance, the interactions of harvesting, hurricane, and salvaging on the fuel complex were examined and fire intensity was determined during prescribed fires. Finally, understory community composition was related to post-disturbance variables. The heterogeneity and diversity indices were similarly affected by fire regime in the Escambia Experimental Forest over the past 55 years. Species diversity and heterogeneity increased with a longer fire return interval and decreased with a greater number of fires, indicating that more frequent fires could result in a homogeneous landscape. Fire intensity was a major determinant of post-fire effects and was influenced by variation in the fuel complex. The prescribed burns had maximum fire temperatures at a low range of 121-148°C and a high range of 288-315°C. Variance occurred at small block sizes along transects sampled in no harvest compartments and at moderate to high block sizes along transects in harvested compartments. Variance peaks were observed at several block sizes, indicating non-stationary patterns of gaps and patches. Along transects located in the "no harvest" compartments, litter depth explained 20% of the variability in maximum fire temperature, while variability along transects located in harvested compartments were explained by 10 and 100-hr fuels (28-33%). Community composition, following the multiple disturbances, was assessed using ordination techniques. Species covers, including Pityopsis graminifolia, Lespedeza procumbens, Solidago odora, Sasafrass albidum, Cornus florida, Andropogon spp., Aristida spp., Ilex glabra, Gaylussacia dumosa, Prunus serotina, Nyssa sylvatica , and Quercus falcata, were correlated with maximum fire temperature. Other species covers, such as Dichanthelium spp., Smilax spp., Ceanothus americanus, Carphephorus odoratissimus, Rubus spp., and Panicum spp., required bare soil to re-colonize. Species heterogeneity and diversity in longleaf pine forests are influenced by numerous factors modified by decades of natural and human-caused disturbance.
Download or read book Restoring a Disappearing Ecosystem written by Tim Harrington and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ecological Assembly of High diversity Plant Communities written by Jonathan Andrew Myers and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
