Season of burn has minimal effect on groundlayer community structure and composition in an Appalachian mixed‐oak forest

Abstract

The groundlayer flora has a disproportionate influence on ecosystem function and contributes to the biodiversity in temperate Quercus forests of eastern North America. Historically open understory conditions perpetuated, in part by fire, have become closed and homogenized by long‐term fire exclusion, likely impacting the groundlayer community. We explored the effects of burn season (unburned = CON, dormant season = DSB, growing season = GSB) on groundlayer (<1 m) vegetation attributes pre‐ and post‐burn. The difference (post‐burn – pre‐burn) in tree cover was greater in GSB (+8.22%) than DSB (+1.24%) and CON (+0.15%), while the change in forb cover was greater in GSB (+1.17%) than CON (−0.15%). Minor effects of burning were observed in diversity metrics, with the change in forb richness greater in GSB (+0.11 species/m2) than CON (−0.78 species/m2), while the change in tree richness was greater in GSB (+1.11 species/m2) than DSB (−1.11 species/m2) and CON (−1.67 species/m2). Nonmetric multi‐dimensional scaling provided evidence that between pre‐ and post‐burn, modest composition shifts in DSB and GSB were associated with more open conditions and lower litter depth. Understory composition did not vary among burn treatments pre‐burn, while post‐burn, composition differed significantly between CON and DSB and DSB and GSB. However, overall, a growing season burn had relatively minor effects on the groundlayer community compared to a dormant season burn. A better understanding of multiple factors affecting groundlayer response to burning is critical to the effective use of prescribed burning in attaining restoration goals.