Influence of season and method of topkill on resprouting characteristics and biomass of Quercus nigra saplings from a southeastern U.S. pine-grassland ecosystem

© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. The resprouting ability of woody plants in frequently burned ecosystems may be influenced by the season and method of topkill. We conducted an experiment to test for the effects of season and method of topkill on aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, and mortality of hardwoods found in a southeastern U.S. pine-grassland. We predicted that topkill occurring during the growing season and topkill by fire would have greater negative impacts on resprouting and root growth and result in greater mortality. We conducted a shadehouse experiment in north Florida in which we applied topkill treatments (burn, clip, and no-topkill) in three seasons (dormant, early growing, and mid growing) to Quercus nigra (water oak) saplings. Plants were destructively sampled 12 months post-treatment to measure aboveground and belowground biomass. Saplings topkilled in the early and mid growing seasons had reduced growth and greater mortality one-year post-treatment compared to plants topkilled in the dormant season. While there was no difference in one-year post-treatment biomass or mortality of saplings between the two methods of topkill, clipped plants had more stems and shorter average stem height than plants topkilled by fire. Root growth continued despite topkilling for all seasons and was greatest for no-topkill plants. These results suggest that while topkill reduces biomass, hardwoods have evolved to maintain belowground biomass reserves, enabling genets to resprout following subsequent topkilling and to persist through frequent disturbances

Data from: Prioritizing land management efforts at a landscape scale: a case study using prescribed fire in Wisconsin

One challenge in the effort to conserve biodiversity is identifying where to prioritize resources for active land management. Cost-benefit analyses have been used successfully as a conservation tool to identify sites that provide the greatest conservation benefit per unit cost. Our goal was to apply cost-benefit analysis to the question of how to prioritize land management efforts, in our case the application of prescribed fire to natural landscapes in Wisconsin, USA. We quantified and mapped frequently burned communities, and prioritized management units based on a suite of indices that captured ecological benefits, management effort, and the feasibility of successful long-term management actions. Data for these indices came from LANDFIRE, Wisconsin's Wildlife Action Plan, and a nationwide Wildland Urban Interface assessment. We found that the majority of frequently burned vegetation types occurred in the southern portion of the state. However, the highest-priority areas for applying prescribed fire occurred in the central, northwest, and northeast portion of the state where frequently burned vegetation patches were larger and where identified areas of high biological importance area occurred. Although our focus was on the use of prescribed fire in Wisconsin, our methods can be adapted to prioritize other land management activities. Such prioritization is necessary to achieve the greatest possible benefits from limited funding for land management actions, and our results show that it is feasible at scales that are relevant for land management decisions

Frequently Burned Vegetation

This shapefile is the result of Step 2 and Step 3 in the methods, where we have identified the most frequently burned fire dependent vegetation for the purpose of this study. Key fields: Community group (Group), Mean fire return interval (FireRetInt), and Community Rarity (RarityRank

Data Steps and Code

Description of steps and code used to identify the most frequently burned fire dependent vegetation (see Step 2 in methods) and the indices used to calculate the priority areas for prescribed fire use (see Steps 4 - 7 in methods)

HUC12WatershedBoundaries

This shapefile includes the indices and prioritization scenarios calculated in Steps 4-7 in the methods. This includes the management benefit index (Step 4), management effort Index (Step 5), management feasibility index (Step 6), and the prioritization scenarios of maximum ecological benefit, maximum benefit with minimum effort, and the comprehensive prioritization (Step 7). All indices and prioritization scenarios are calculated for "managment units" which were the HUC12 watershed designations (Available from http://nhd.usgs.gov/wbd.html). Key fields: Management Benefit Index (BenefitInd). Management Ease Index (MgtEaseInd). Management Effort Index (Effort_Nor). Ecological Benefit (EcBenefit). Maximum Ecological Benefit with Minimum Effort (EcBenEffor). Comprehensive Prioritization (CompRank

Historic Prairie Savanna Vegetation

Shapefile used to determine historic extent of prairie and savanna vegetation types in Wisconsin. Used in Step 2 of methods to include pasture and managed grasslands that had potential to include remnant prairie patches

Influence of season and method of topkill on resprouting characteristics and biomass of Quercus nigra saplings from a southeastern U.S. pine-grassland ecosystem

© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. The resprouting ability of woody plants in frequently burned ecosystems may be influenced by the season and method of topkill. We conducted an experiment to test for the effects of season and method of topkill on aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, and mortality of hardwoods found in a southeastern U.S. pine-grassland. We predicted that topkill occurring during the growing season and topkill by fire would have greater negative impacts on resprouting and root growth and result in greater mortality. We conducted a shadehouse experiment in north Florida in which we applied topkill treatments (burn, clip, and no-topkill) in three seasons (dormant, early growing, and mid growing) to Quercus nigra (water oak) saplings. Plants were destructively sampled 12 months post-treatment to measure aboveground and belowground biomass. Saplings topkilled in the early and mid growing seasons had reduced growth and greater mortality one-year post-treatment compared to plants topkilled in the dormant season. While there was no difference in one-year post-treatment biomass or mortality of saplings between the two methods of topkill, clipped plants had more stems and shorter average stem height than plants topkilled by fire. Root growth continued despite topkilling for all seasons and was greatest for no-topkill plants. These results suggest that while topkill reduces biomass, hardwoods have evolved to maintain belowground biomass reserves, enabling genets to resprout following subsequent topkilling and to persist through frequent disturbances