Abstract
Worldwide, grasslands are becoming shrublands/forests. In North America, eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) often colonizes prairies. Habitat management can focus on woody removal, but we often lack long‐term data on whether removal leads to population recovery of herbaceous plants without seeding. We undertook a long‐term study (17 years) of numbers of the rare annual plant Agalinis auriculata in a gridwork of 100 m2 plots in adjacent prairie and oldfield sites in Kansas, USA. We collected data before and after removal of Juniperus virginiana at the prairie. Plant population sizes were highly variable at both sites and over time. High numbers of plants in a plot 1 year were often followed by low numbers the following year, suggesting negative density‐dependence. Plant numbers were lowest with extensive woody cover and with low precipitation. After woody plant removal, A. auriculata increased dramatically in abundance and occupancy in most years; increases were also seen at the oldfield, suggesting later survey years were overall more favorable. Synthesis and applications: Removal of woody plants led to increased numbers of a rare annual prairie plant, without seeding. Multiple years of data were essential for interpretation given extreme temporal variability in numbers. The largest prairie population was 7 years following tree removal, showing that positive effects of management can last this long. This species also fared well in oldfield habitat, suggesting restoration opportunities. Given that land managers are busy, time‐efficient field methods and data analysis approaches such as ours offer advantages. In addition to general linear models, we suggest Rank Occupancy‐Abundance Profiles (ROAPs), a simple‐to‐use data visualization and analysis method. Creation of ROAPs for sites before and after habitat management helps reveal the degree to which plant populations are responding to management with changes in local density, changes in occupancy, or both.
Highlights
Temperate grasslands are conservation priorities; these once vast ecosystems have a long history of transformation to agriculture
The question of community transformation or recovery depends on the population ecology of individual species: that is, are increases or decreases of woody cover associated with predictable growth or decline of herbaceous plant populations? Dedicated population ap‐ proaches are needed for rare species that may not occur regularly in small sampling plots
Our work examined the rare annual Agalinis auriculata in Kansas, USA in the context of woody colonization by eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana; Figure 1)
Summary
Temperate grasslands are conservation priorities; these once vast ecosystems have a long history of transformation to agriculture. Removal of eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) can sometimes lead to re‐ covery of herbaceous communities (Alford, Hellgren, Limb, & Engle, 2012; Limb, Engle, Alford, & Hellgren, 2014; Pierce & Reich, 2010) These studies took a broad perspective, using many sites and tak‐ ing data on percent cover or biomass of many species. Our work examined the rare annual Agalinis auriculata in Kansas, USA in the context of woody colonization by eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana; Figure 1) This tree has increased across central North America (Meneguzzo & Liknes, 2015), primarily due to fire suppression (Ratajczak et al, 2014). Based on a 4‐year study in Illinois, Vitt, Havens, Kendall, and Knight (2009) concluded that populations should decline in the presence of woody brush (lambda = 0.81) and grow (lambda = 1.22) with brush removal We addressed the degree to which A. auriculata is dependent on rem‐ nant prairie: were numbers comparable in the oldfield and prairie? With both sites, we explored how other factors were associated with plant numbers, ranging from precipitation to local variation in past plant numbers
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