Abstract
Fire suppression and other factors have drastically reduced wet prairie and pine savanna ecosystems on the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. Restoration of these open-canopy environments often targets one or several charismatic species, and semi-aquatic species such as burrowing crayfishes are often overlooked in these essentially terrestrial environments. We examined the relationship between primary burrowing crayfishes and three vegetation treatments implemented over at least the past two decades in the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. Vegetation in the 12 study sites had been frequently burned, frequently mechanically treated, or infrequently managed. Creaserinus spp., primarily C. oryktes, dominated the crayfish assemblage in every site. We counted crayfish burrow openings and coarsely categorized vegetation characteristics in 90, 0.56-m2 quadrats evenly distributed among six transects per site. The number of active burrow openings was negatively, exponentially related to both the percent cover of woody vegetation and the maximum height of woody vegetation in quadrats, and to the number of trees taller than 1.2 m per transect, indicating that woody plant encroachment was detrimental to the crayfishes. Results were consistent with several other studies from the eastern US, indicating that some primary burrowing crayfishes are habitat specialists adapted to open-canopy ecosystems.
Highlights
In the southeastern US, frequent fire—with return intervals of 1–3 years—maintained millions of acres of open longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) stands [1], characterized by species-rich bunchgrass-dominated understories free of hardwoods and shrubs [2].These pine savannas and their associated embedded ecosystems, such as pitcher plant (Sarracenia spp.) bogs, wetlands, and prairies, were historically one of North America’s most species-rich ecosystems and remain global biodiversity hotspots [3,4,5]
Most or all of the Creaserinus spp. were C. oryktes; due to uncertainties in taxonomy and identification, we cannot rule out the possibility that some were C. danielae
Though many prairies and savannas are considered terrestrial habitats, they can be critical to burrowing semi-aquatic species that access the water table during at least some seasons [30]
Summary
In the southeastern US, frequent fire—with return intervals of 1–3 years—maintained millions of acres of open longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) stands [1], characterized by species-rich bunchgrass-dominated understories free of hardwoods and shrubs [2]. These pine savannas and their associated embedded ecosystems, such as pitcher plant (Sarracenia spp.) bogs, wetlands, and prairies, were historically one of North America’s most species-rich ecosystems and remain global biodiversity hotspots [3,4,5]. Longleaf pine ecosystems are critically endangered [7], with less than 4% of their pre-historic distribution remaining [1,4]; remnants of these ecosystems, and other open pine savannas and prairies in the southeastern US, still harbor diverse communities [3,7,8].
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