Native Prairie Research Articles

Long-term fire and grazing regimes modify soil physical properties and root traits in North American tallgrass prairie

The native Konza tallgrass prairie is maintained by two key natural processes, periodic fire and ungulate grazing. As a potential crucial feedback mechanism, how fire and grazing influence plant root traits and soil properties in the tallgrass prairie ecosystem remains less known. Here, we investigated the effects of long-term fire and grazing regimes on soil physical properties and root traits at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, near Manhattan, KS, USA. Soil cores were collected under control (unburned and ungrazed), fire (annually burned), grazing (annually grazed), and fire + grazing (annually burned and grazed) treatments. Soil water retention, total root volume, specific root length, specific root area, and root biomass were measured. We found that both fire and grazing significantly reduced soil water retention, increased soil bulk density and soil microporosity (<50 μm), and reduced macroporosity (>50 μm) compared to the unburned and ungrazed treatment. Fire and grazing also significantly reduced litter accumulation by 79 % (burned), 57 % (grazed), and 77 % (burned and grazed). Fire increased specific root area by 15 %. Grazing and fire + grazing significantly decreased specific root length by 40 % and 29 %, and specific root area by 33 % and 24 %, respectively. Litter production was positively related to soil volumetric water content and soil pore volume of 300–50 μm, but negatively related to soil bulk density and soil pore volume of less 50 μm. Soil volumetric water content was positively correlated to specific root lengths, and soil bulk density was negatively related to specific root length and specific root area. There was a significant negative relationship between root diameter and soil volumetric water content under burned and grazed treatment. The SEM model showed that fire, grazing, and fire + grazing regimes were associated with dead root biomass (R2 = 0.38) and root length density (R2 = 0.40) indirectly through soil bulk density and litter accumulation. Our findings suggested that the annual fire + grazing regime seriously leads to the degradation of tallgrass prairie by influencing soil physical properties, reducing root trait functions and root biomass, and altering the relationship between root diameter and soil volumetric water content.

Hay meadows in the High Weald of Sussex

SummaryThe ancient hay meadows at Wakehurst, Kew's wild botanic garden, are described, and many of the species which go to make up these High Weald grasslands are illustrated. Native Sussex hay meadows and North American prairie grasslands are compared.

Catastrophic flooding effects on a Wisconsin wet prairie remnant: A shift in the disturbance regime?

Climate change is likely to imperil native biodiversity through the increased frequency of extreme events. Here we address the short-term effects of an extreme flooding event on an unplowed prairie reserve, the Faville Prairie Wisconsin State Natural Area. This 25-ha property is a remnant of the formerly extensive Crawfish Prairie that lay on the east bank of the Crawfish River, Jefferson County, Wisconsin USA. The Faville remnant has historically been subject to late winter to spring flooding in its lower portions. In June of 2008, however, an extreme rainfall event caused flooding unprecedented in the 87-year history of streamflow, inundating the entire site. Data were available from 180 permanently marked plots sampled in 1978-79. We assessed the change by resampling these plots in 2010-2015. At the m2 scale, we found significant losses of species richness, a result of most species having fewer occurrences than in the earlier data. There was near extinction of several important prairie species and a relative increase in wetland tolerant species. Lower elevation plots, subject to the encroachment of woody plants and the invasion of Phalaris arundinacea for decades prior to the flood, had the lowest levels of species richness. However, some prairie species survived the flooding with little change, and recent anecdotal observations show that others are rebuilding their populations. Thus, if extreme floods are infrequent, the prairie should be able to recover to its former state. If, however, the hydrological regime shifts toward more frequent, growing-season floods, we predict further decline in those plant species that were the object of the preservation of this remnant. It is critical that fire management continue along with monitoring to track species' recovery or replacement, so that corrective measures can be identified and tested to sustain the native prairie species diversity.

A comparison of moderate and high spatial resolution satellite data for modeling gross primary production and transpiration of native prairie, alfalfa, and winter wheat

Although agroecosystems have a significant potential to offset carbon dioxide (CO2), the amount of CO2 captured can vary significantly depending on management practices. Accurate estimation of gross primary production (GPP) and transpiration (T) of agroecosystems at the field scale are essential for the study of food security and water resource management. To date, the carbon and water fluxes data products for commercial agroecosystems are limited, mostly at the moderate spatial resolution (MSR, hundreds of meters), which cannot be used to assess the temporal dynamics of GPP and T at the field scale. This study used the vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM) and vegetation transpiration model (VTM) to estimate field-level daily GPP (GPPVPM) and T (TVTM), respectively, in native prairie, alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in central Oklahoma, USA. We evaluated the reliability and advantages of vegetation indices (enhanced vegetation index, EVI and land surface water index, LSWI) in monitoring the land surface phenology using moderate spatial resolution data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and high spatial resolution (HSR, tens of meters) data from Landsat and Sentinel-2. The accuracy of GPPVPM and TVTM estimates at different spatial scales was evaluated using GPP (GPPEC) and evapotranspiration (ETEC) from the eddy flux tower sites, respectively. Results demonstrate the capacity of VPM and VTM to estimate the field-level carbon and water flux dynamics and their responses to weather conditions. The use of HSR vegetation indices helped to address certain challenges faced by MSR indices, especially in capturing the crop phenology in smaller areas with conservation measures or disturbances. The findings highlight the importance of using HSR GPP estimates to reduce uncertainty in quantifying CO2 fluxes for croplands and grasslands. The findings also demonstrate the ability of the models to track field-level vegetation phenology, carbon uptake, and water use in agroecosystems under different management practices.

PSXIV-19 Gas Flux By Calves from Dams Identified as Either High Or Low Methane Emitters

Abstract Eight (BW = 398 ± 8 kg) Red Angus heifers were used to examine the similarity between respiration gas parameters of dams and their offspring. The CH4, CO2 emissions, and O2 consumption of heifers were measured over a 70-day period using an automated head-chamber system that measured CO2, CH4, and O2 fluxes. Heifers grazed native mixed-grass prairie and were given a daily supplement of 1.025 kg of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) pellets via the automated head-chamber system. Heifers were then artificially inseminated using sexed semen from a single Black Angus sire. The emissions of the offspring (BW = 284 ± 7 kg; 7 heifers, 1 steer) were measured at 11 months of age over a 70-day period. Like the dams, during their measurement period, the offspring grazed native mixed-grass prairie and were given a daily supplement of 1.025 kg of alfalfa pellets via the automated head-chamber system. Means for CH4, CO2 emissions, O2 consumption, CH4:CO2 ratio, respiratory quotient, and heat production were compared between dams and their calf by regressing maternal parameters on the parameters of the calves and using beginning dam and offspring BW as covariates. Methane emissions of the dams and their offspring had an excellent Pearson’s correlation (ρ = 0.79). Carbon dioxide emissions and O2 consumption had an excellent Pearson’s correlation among dams and their offspring (ρ = 0.88 and 0.91, respectively). Heat production as well as the CH4:CO2 ratio also had an excellent and good Pearson’s correlation (ρ = 0.91 and 0.67, respectively). The respiratory quotient correlation was good (ρ = 0.60). These results indicated that CH4 and CO2 emissions, O2 consumption, the CH4:CO2 ratio and HP production from offspring have a good Pearson’s correlation with the dam’s emissions. Hence, even with this small dataset, there is evidence that beef cattle can be selected for lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Land use conversion increases network complexity and stability of soil microbial communities in a temperate grassland.

Soils harbor highly diverse microbial communities that are critical to soil health, but agriculture has caused extensive land use conversion resulting in negative effects on critical ecosystem processes. However, the responses and adaptations of microbial communities to land use conversion have not yet been understood. Here, we examined the effects of land conversion for long-term crop use on the network complexity and stability of soil microbial communities over 19 months. Despite reduced microbial biodiversity in comparison with native tallgrass prairie, conventionally tilled (CT) cropland significantly increased network complexity such as connectivity, connectance, average clustering coefficient, relative modularity, and the number of species acting at network hubs and connectors as well as resulted in greater temporal variation of complexity indices. Molecular ecological networks under CT cropland became significantly more robust and less vulnerable, overall increasing network stability. The relationship between network complexity and stability was also substantially strengthened due to land use conversion. Lastly, CT cropland decreased the number of relationships between network structure and environmental properties instead being strongly correlated to management disturbances. These results indicate that agricultural disturbance generally increases the complexity and stability of species "interactions", possibly as a trade-off for biodiversity loss to support ecosystem function when faced with frequent agricultural disturbance.

Biochar improves soil quality prior to prairie restoration

Intensive agriculture has led to widespread losses of native grasslands. Restoration projects are trying to reestablish native communities. However, the poor quality and altered food webs of former agricultural soils act as barriers to establishing diverse plant communities. Soil amendments such as biochar have been used to improve soil quality and increase crop yield, but little research has been on biochar in restoration settings. Eastern Washington University is attempting to restore a former wheat field to native Palouse prairie vegetation. In this study, we compared (1) soil abiotic properties and food webs between Palouse prairie remnants and Eastern Washington University's (EWU) restoration site and (2) tested whether biochar can move soil conditions at EWU's restoration site closer to those of remnant sites. We compared soils from three Palouse prairie remnants and EWU's restoration site, and compared soils at the restoration site that were treated with different levels of biochar. Soil nematodes were extracted and sorted to functional groups as an assay of the structure and functional diversity of the soil food web. The soil at EWU's restoration site had significantly lower nematode abundance, pH, and organic matter compared to prairie remnants. In addition, nematode abundance and pH increased significantly at the EWU site with the addition of biochar, both increasing to conditions similar to what is found at the prairie remnant sites. These results suggest biochar can improve some soil conditions in former agricultural lands even prior to native plant restoration.

Farming for solutions: Perennial plants and native prairie show promise for sustainability, climate goals

Farming for solutions: Perennial plants and native prairie show promise for sustainability, climate goals

Seasonality and bacterial community assembly processes dominate prairie ecosystem service disruption during invasion

Invasive plants alter soil microbial communities and ecosystem services reducing the Earth's carrying capacity for humans. Many ecosystem services are underpinned by soil microbial communities, and these communities arise from assembly processes that are likely altered by invasion. We evaluated the hypothesis that invasive effects on grassland ecosystem services arise from changes in microbial community assembly processes caused by invasion. We sampled 515 plots at a native Rough Fescue prairie undergoing invasion by nine invasive species of which smooth brome (Bromus inermis) is a dominant member. Each week, for 26 weeks, we monitored invasion effects on vascular plant communities, ecosystem services, as well as bacterial and fungal community structures. Invasive effects on ecosystem services interacted with seasonal (plant green-up, peak biomass, and plant senescence) effects and consistently disrupted ecosystem service provision. Invasion increased heterogenous selection in fungal communities but otherwise had minor effects on assembly process. Only ∼20% of community composition could be ascribed to deterministic filters which hindered our ability to conclusively link invasion to assembly processes. Assembly processes explained changes in ecosystem services with bacterial assembly accounting for 2.5% of food, 4% of climate, 9% of conservation and 5.5% of fertility services. Fungal communities were less consistent in their effects on ecosystem services with only food (3%) and water (4%) services influenced by fungal assembly. After seasonality (27%), bacterial assembly processes (4%) accounted for the largest effect on ecosystem services, overshadowing invasion (2%) and fungal assembly (2%). At this 130-ha site, after seasonal effects, bacterial assembly processes had the largest effect on ecosystem services with plant invasion placing a distant third.

Direct and indirect landscape-scale pathways structure carnivore communities in an agro-prairie ecosystem

Abstract Many carnivore populations have experienced substantial declines and are at increased risk of extinction, mainly due to negative interactions with humans and biological traits that make them susceptible to habitat loss and fragmentation, often driven by agricultural expansion. Carnivore community richness is likely influenced by many direct and indirect factors, though it is unclear how carnivore communities are structured in prairie landscapes that are considered one of the most imperiled ecosystems worldwide. Our goal was to identify landscape-scale effects driving carnivore community richness in a contemporary agro-prairie ecosystem. We used 3 years of presence data (2018–2020) from camera-trap sites (n = 381) distributed across western Kansas, United States and developed a structural equation model (SEM) to test a priori hypotheses explaining carnivore richness. Measures of water availability, native prairie, and agriculture—as well as sampling effort (i.e., days cameras were active)—were all positively associated with carnivore richness. Additionally, our index of rabbit abundances at sites had a direct positive effect on our measure of carnivore richness. Our SEM explained 42% of the variance in carnivore richness (χ2 = 8.76, d.f. = 21, P = 0.99) in this human-dominated landscape. Our results suggest that carnivore communities in agro-prairie landscapes are structured through multiple direct and indirect landscape-scale pathways. Contemporary agro-prairie mosaics may act as filters for the agricultural tolerance of carnivores, with species more vulnerable to native prairie loss becoming locally extirpated.

Home ranges of Ornate Box Turtles in remnant prairies in north-central Illinois

Habitat loss has been a primary driver of biodiversity declines throughout the United States. Native prairie ecosystems represent some of the most significant losses in land cover, and subsequently, prairie-dependent species are some of the most imperiled. Therefore, understanding the ecology of species remaining in remnant portions of these ecosystems is important to help manage their populations. Using radio-telemetry, we examined minimum convex polygon (MCP) and 95% kernel density (KD) home ranges of 20 (5 females, 15 males) Ornate Box Turtles (Terrapene ornata) inhabiting two remnant prairies in north-central Illinois across two years and six seasons. Results showed that MCP and 95% KD home range estimates were comparable but smaller than other published studies, differed between years, across seasons, and among individual turtles within sites. These results provide valuable data to quantify the ecology of this threatened species in a remnant prairie habitat.

Root distributions, precipitation, and soil structure converge to govern soil organic carbon depth distributions

The depth distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) is governed by the interaction of many ecosystem features, including differential C inputs in shallow and deep soils and the redistribution of C via water flow through the profile. In C-rich Mollisols in particular, we need to better understand the degree to which the conversion of native prairie to cultivated lands is changing C loss and retention. We probed multiple mechanisms driving these processes using two approaches: one leverages a regional-scale dataset derived from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) Characterization Database; and a second focusses on a local-scale, more detailed dataset representative of the climatic and land-use gradients invoked in the larger database. The first approach focused on parameterizing SOC depth distributions of Mollisols across a climatic gradient in the US Midwest to investigate how land use and effective precipitation affects vertical gradients of SOC. The second approach furthered the investigation of SOC depth distribution drivers by quantifying biological, physical, and chemical properties of multiple soil profiles across Kansas, US. SOC declined more gradually with depth as water availability increased in native prairie soils, prompting the hypothesis that increased water flow through the profile carries C to deep layers, particularly where high root abundances promote soil porosity. Analyses of multiple soil profiles indicate that surficial changes driven by land conversion propagate their influence to deep soil horizons in ways significant for the coupling of C cycling across depths. Our findings support the hypothesis, and specifically suggest linkages between decreased root abundances and increased flows of soluble C downward under agriculture, and associated changes in soil structure that affect the propensity of SOC to form aggregates. The interplay between rooting depth abundances and water availability in different land uses thus appears to influence the arrangement of soils particles and voids in ways important for vertical water flow and C transport. Our work illuminates the convergence of multiple important mechanisms driving changes in the shape of SOC depth distributions across timescales shorter than typically assumed, with consequences for projecting soil C cycling and storage in the Anthropocene.

Adaptation of pathogens to their local plant host, Silphium integrifolium, along a precipitation gradient

AbstractEmpirical evidence of the influence of climate on plant–pathogen coevolution is limited but crucial to understand, as anthropogenic pressures including fragmentation and climate change threaten biodiversity. In this study, we tested patterns of plant–pathogen coevolution using Silphium integrifolium Michx., a native tallgrass prairie species that is undergoing domestication, and its foliar pathogens. We collected seeds from four native prairie remnants from each of three regions along an east–west precipitation gradient in central North America and used these to create three common gardens in each region. In common gardens and remnant prairie populations, we measured symptoms of foliar disease (leaf rust and leaf blotch, both caused by fungal pathogens, and Silphium clear vein (SCV), which we have evidence is associated with a virus). While we did not observe greater disease in the East common garden, we did find that on average the East populations had greater resistance to disease than West populations, consistent with an evolutionary legacy of more rapid coevolution with high precipitation. We also found strong interactions between source region and region of planting for all diseases. The Silphium rust, caused by the specialist pathogen Puccinia silphii, was better able to infect plant populations from the same region. These patterns are consistent with local adaptation of specialist pathogens to their local hosts as expected from Red Queen dynamics. For the generalist fungal pathogen driving leaf blotch, we did not observe evidence of local adaptation. However, we observed a positive correlation in the average level of leaf blotch symptoms observed in individual populations in common gardens with the levels of disease in the S. integrifolium individuals in the prairie remnants of origin, consistent with S. integrifolium genetics determining symptoms in the field. Our results are consistent with pathogen ecology being a major driver of coevolutionary dynamics along productivity gradients. As S. integrifolium is being domesticated for oilseed production, our results identify distinct targets for resistance alleles in breeding efforts and can guide pathogen management strategies.

Legacy effects of intensified drought on the soil microbiome in a mesic grassland

AbstractThe soil microbiome response to global change drivers remains largely unclassified, with current studies showing contrasting results to several global change drivers. One such driver, drought, is increasing in severity and frequency due to climate change. Further, legacy effects, or long‐lasting impacts after drought has subsided, could have lasting impacts on the soil microbiome with important consequences for ecosystem functioning. Thus, our study aimed to understand how the soil microbiome responds after a severe, prolonged drought and whether legacy effects persist post‐drought. We measured soil microbial community response in a mesic grassland for two years after a four‐year experimental drought in a native tallgrass prairie. The experimental drought was imposed either (1) chronically by reducing each growing season rainfall event by 66% or (2) intensely by completely eliminating growing season rainfall until an ~45% reduction in mean annual rainfall (climatic average) was achieved. The bacterial community showed no legacies in the first season post‐drought in response to either chronic or intense drought but showed an increased abundance of Verrucomicrobia and decreased richness in both treatments in the second growing season after the drought treatments ended. In the first and second post‐drought growing seasons, we found small differences in beta diversity between the control and intense drought treatment for fungal communities but not for the chronic drought treatment. Further, we found that the two main phyla of fungi, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, showed reduced relative abundance post‐drought in the intense drought treatment. Overall, few legacies in soil microbial communities persisted after a four‐year experimentally induced drought. However, our results show that the nature of the drought—chronic versus intense—can differentially impact fungal versus bacterial short‐term legacies. These results suggest that the soil microbiome is for the most part drought resistant (responds little during drought) and/or resilient (quickly recovers post‐drought, since a study at the same site found that drought impacted the bacterial community) in this mesic grassland.

Temporal changes in soil profile chemical properties in an 18‐year grassland restoration in the US Mid‐Atlantic Coastal Plain

AbstractMany grassland restorations have been established in the United States over the past few decades, as native tallgrass prairies have often been converted to agriculture. However, only a few of the restorations have been initiated on the east coast of the United States. The objective of this field study was to evaluate the short‐ (∼3.5 years) and long‐term (∼15 years) changes in soil chemical properties among soil depths in a grassland restoration initiated in 1999 on previously cultivated, highly weathered soils of the Mid‐Atlantic Coastal Plain. Soil was collected in 2006 and 2018 to a depth of 20 cm and sectioned into 2.5 or 5 cm depth intervals and compared to pre‐burn conditions from 2003. Soil pH was 0.2 to 0.3 pH units lower in the 2.5–20 cm depth interval in 2018 compared to 2003. Extractable soil calcium was 25% lower and magnesium was 35% lower in the 2.5–5.0 and 2.5–20 cm depth intervals, respectively, in 2018 compared to 2003. Total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN) were greater in the 2.5–5.0 and 2.5–10‐cm depths, respectively, in 2018 compared to 2003. Measured soil carbon (C) and nitrogen sequestration rates were 82 g TC m−2 year−1 and 0.27 g TN m−2 year−1 in the top 20 cm of soil. Grassland restorations contribute ecosystem services, including soil C sequestration; however, land managers may need to consider adding lime to grassland restorations on nutrient‐poor soils that are naturally acidic or have become acidified over time if the land is returned to agricultural production.

Sensing Scale in Experimental Gardens: Un-Lawning with Silphium Civic Science

Gardening experiments are timely in the context of what many now call the Anthropocene, an era that highlights questions of how humans collectively relate to the larger Earth systems in which we are embedded. In Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept, Timothy Clark reflects on the “unreadability” of the Anthropocene. He invites ecocritics to address this challenge by practicing “scale framing,” reading texts in variable and increasingly broad scales, and engaging the contradictions that emerge. We applied a scale framing approach to a story of relationships with Silphium integrifolium in an experimental gardening project. Silphium is a native North American perennial prairie plant being domesticated as a future oilseed crop. We are researchers and participants in a civic science project, in which individual garden sites are designed to collect data on and conserve silphium ecotypes while being linked into a wider network. In particular, we analyzed a civic science video story created by Ellie Irons called “Un-Lawning with Silphium.” Through our ecocritical analysis, we generated a framework to visualize nested and cross-scalar relationships in gardening projects. This framework could help inform the design and assessment of experimental gardening projects that feature the arts and humanities (e.g., digital narratives, ecocriticism, and pedagogy) and connect them with the natural and social sciences (e.g., plant breeding, botany, geography, and ecology) through transdisciplinary and participatory research methodologies for public engagement (e.g., civic science). We found that civic science gardening with silphium, and other gardening experiments in the Anthropocene, can guide public sensory engagements with scale, help spark recognition and investigation of contradictory scale effects, and motivate us to imagine and build relationships of caring responsibility.

Influence of Livestock Grazing History on Plant Community Composition on Native Prairies of the Southern Prairie Pothole Region

The southern Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of central North America is a highly modified landscape where remnant unplowed prairies could serve as repositories of native plant biodiversity. A previous study paired two historically idle US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wildlife Refuges with nearby privately owned grazing lands in North Dakota and found differences in invasive grass frequency, notably that smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.) was less prevalent on annually grazed lands. A broader assessment, conducted over a wider geographic area, was warranted to investigate whether this relationship held across the southern extent of PPR in North Dakota and South Dakota. To this end, we selected 26 USFWS native prairie sites paired with adjacent/nearby native prairie sites with a history of livestock grazing in the PPR of North Dakota and South Dakota. We estimated plant species’ cover in five 10 × 10 m plots at each paired site in June or July of 2021. Plant community composition on USFWS sites was distinct from paired sites under private or state ownership (permutational analysis of variance (P = 0.021, F = 1.935). Additionally, paired t-tests revealed that sites under private or state ownership (with a long-term history of grazing) had higher total species richness (P = 0.006) and floristic quality index (a measure of species richness and disturbance tolerance) values (P = 0.042) than USFWS sites (without a long-term history of grazing). Smooth brome relative cover was lower (P = 0.019) at sites with a long-term history of grazing (13.4% mean relative cover) than paired USFWS sites (23.3% mean relative cover). Given these differences, remnant native prairies with long-term histories of annual grazing may provide unique opportunities for conserving native plant diversity and impeding smooth brome spread in the southern PPR.

Upland prairie adaptive management staged‐scale restoration practices for native plant and endangered butterfly reintroduction

Abstract The present practice insight derives from land manager requests to document current on‐site activity and provides a management planning reference for restoration on Violet Prairie. Start‐up restoration initiates from trial‐and‐error adaptive management practices in the Puget Sound region of western Washington, USA. Treatments used focus on the implementation of staged‐scale restoration. Preparation intends to meet reintroduction goals of establishing a native plant community that could potentially support the threatened endemic Castilleja levisecta (golden paintbrush). Reintroduction of the associated native plant community provides habitat for endangered Euphydryas editha taylori (Taylor's checkerspot butterfly). Known conventional agricultural use coupled to fire suppression since the 1800s altered regional prairie lands to an unfavourable state for native plant species. Local native prairie soil types were favoured for growing conventional grasses and exotic forb species common to grazing pastures. Land abandonment and degradation has lengthened the time of disturbance and complicated restoring to a generalized reference point prior to settlement. Persistent exotic species, encroaching housing development, coniferous forest and recent wildfire complicate converting back to native prairie. Threatened and endangered species and their habitat are targeted in a trial‐and‐error process of staged‐scale adaptive management within the goal of whole ecosystem and connectivity restoration. Land managers focus on exotics removal and intensive native reseeding while restoring the use of prescribed burning as a maintenance tool. Embedded monitoring and observation advises where future practices need to be adapted by focusing on treatments and outcomes. Past land use practices replaced native soil seed banks with exotic seed banks that further distort reference proxies. Unknowns interrupt the current implementation additionally to soil conversion issues, while short‐term adaptive management methods initiate conversion back to native prairie. Species reintroduction choices to develop community structure are complicated by the fact that historical reference point species may be missing altogether from existing native communities. An unanswered outcome of the restoration process is determining which set of treatments best prepares soil for the desired native plant community.

Detecting ecological traps in human-altered landscapes: A case study of the thick-billed longspur nesting in croplands.

Conversion of the North American prairies to cropland remains a prominent threat to grassland bird populations. Yet, a few species nest in these vastly modified systems. Thick-billed longspurs historically nested in recently disturbed or sparsely vegetated patches within native mixed-grass prairie, but observations of longspurs in spring cereal and pulse crop fields during the breeding season in northeastern Montana, USA, suggest such fields also provide cues for habitat selection. Maladaptive selection for poor-quality habitat may contribute to ongoing declines in longspur populations, but information on thick-billed longspur breeding ecology in crop fields is lacking. We hypothesized that crop fields may function as ecological traps; specifically, we expected that crop fields may provide cues for territory selection, but frequent human disturbance would result in reduced reproduction. To address this hypothesis, we compared measures of habitat selection (settlement patterns and trends in abundance) and productivity (nest density, nest survival, and number of young fledged) between crop fields and native grassland sites during 2020-2021. Across both years, settlement patterns were similar between site types and occupancy ranged from 0.52 ± 0.17 SE to 0.99 ± 0.01 on April 7 and 30, respectively. Early season abundance differed by year, and changes in abundance during the breeding season appeared to be associated with precipitation-driven vegetation conditions rather than habitat type. While an index of nest density was lower in crop than native sites, the number of young fledged per successful nest (2.9 ± 0.18 SE) and nest survival (0.24 ± 0.03 SE; n = 222 nests) were similar for crop and native sites. Collectively, the data did not support our ecological trap hypothesis: longspurs did not exhibit a clear preference for crop sites and reproductive output was not significantly reduced. Our results indicate that croplands may provide alternative breeding habitat within a human-dominated landscape.

Agriculture accentuates interannual variability in water fluxes but not carbon fluxes, relative to native prairie, in the U.S. Corn Belt

Agriculture accentuates interannual variability in water fluxes but not carbon fluxes, relative to native prairie, in the U.S. Corn Belt