TY - JOUR
T1 - Exotic-dominated grasslands show signs of recovery with cattle grazing and fire
AU - Delaney, John T.
AU - Moranz, Raymond A.
AU - Debinski, Diane M.
AU - Engle, David M.
AU - Miller, James R.
N1 - This research was supported by the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station. Partial funding for this project was through the Iowa State Wildlife Grants program grants T-1-R-15 and U-2-R-1 in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. We wish to thank Jason Burkum, Anna Holtermann, Meghan Kirkwood, Jacob Mortensen, Ben Nagel, Matthew Nielsen, Calla Olson, Toni Proescholdt, Michael Rausch, Shannon Rusk, and Laura Winkler for their work in the field, and special thanks to Ryan Harr for managing almost every field aspect of our research project. Finally, we pay our respects to the late Sheri Svehla for initiating our work in the field and the lab.
PY - 2016/11
Y1 - 2016/11
N2 - In grasslands, overgrazing by domestic livestock, fertilization, and introduction of exotic forage species leads to plant communities consisting of a mixture of native and exotic species. These degraded grasslands present a problem for land managers, farmers, and restoration ecologists concerned with improving biodiversity while continuing to use the land for livestock production. Here we assessed the response of butterfly and plant community composition to the use of fire and moderate grazing by domestic cattle on degraded grasslands dominated by exotic plants. We evaluated change by comparing experimental pastures to two reference sites that were grasslands dominated by native plants. We used two burning and grazing treatments: 1) patch-burn graze, a heterogeneously managed treatment, where one third of the pasture is burned each year and cattle have free access to the entire pasture, and 2) graze-and-burn, a homogenously managed treatment, where the entire pasture is grazed each year and burned in its entirety every three years. We tested for change in the butterfly and plant community composition over seven years using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity measures. Over the course of seven years, degraded pastures in both treatments became more similar to reference sites with respect to the butterfly and plant communities. Only two butterfly species and two plant functional guilds exhibited significant linear trends over time, with varying responses. Compositional changes in both the butterfly and plant communities indicate that the use of moderate grazing and fire may shift butterfly and plant communities of exotic-dominated grasslands to be more similar to reference tallgrass prairies over time.
AB - In grasslands, overgrazing by domestic livestock, fertilization, and introduction of exotic forage species leads to plant communities consisting of a mixture of native and exotic species. These degraded grasslands present a problem for land managers, farmers, and restoration ecologists concerned with improving biodiversity while continuing to use the land for livestock production. Here we assessed the response of butterfly and plant community composition to the use of fire and moderate grazing by domestic cattle on degraded grasslands dominated by exotic plants. We evaluated change by comparing experimental pastures to two reference sites that were grasslands dominated by native plants. We used two burning and grazing treatments: 1) patch-burn graze, a heterogeneously managed treatment, where one third of the pasture is burned each year and cattle have free access to the entire pasture, and 2) graze-and-burn, a homogenously managed treatment, where the entire pasture is grazed each year and burned in its entirety every three years. We tested for change in the butterfly and plant community composition over seven years using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity measures. Over the course of seven years, degraded pastures in both treatments became more similar to reference sites with respect to the butterfly and plant communities. Only two butterfly species and two plant functional guilds exhibited significant linear trends over time, with varying responses. Compositional changes in both the butterfly and plant communities indicate that the use of moderate grazing and fire may shift butterfly and plant communities of exotic-dominated grasslands to be more similar to reference tallgrass prairies over time.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0165758
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0165758
M3 - Article
C2 - 27820838
AN - SCOPUS:84994631168
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 11
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 11
M1 - e0165758
ER -