Burning reveals cryptic plant diversity and promotes coexistence in a California prairie restoration experiment

Ecosphere

Volumn 6, Issue 5, 2015, Pages

  Young, Derek J N ^a   Porensky, Lauren M ^b   Wolf, Kristina M ^a   Fick, Stephen E ^a   Young, Truman P ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE   (United States)

Author keywords

California; Central Valley; controlled burns; diversity; fire; fire induced recruitment; grassland; Grindelia; intraspecific aggregation; restoration; seed bank; Trifolium

Indexed keywords

EID: 84985042256     PISSN: None     EISSN: 21508925     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/ES14-00303.1     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Antos, J. A., B. McCune, and C. Bara. 1983. The effect of fire on an ungrazed western Montana grassland. American Midland Naturalist 110:354–364.
2. andBartolome, J. W., W. J. Barry, T. Griggs, and P. Hopkinson. 2007. Valley grassland. Pages 367–393 in M. G. Barbour, Keeler-Wolf, T. and Schoenherr, editors. Terrestrial vegetation of California. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA.
3. Baxter, B. J. M., J. Van Staden, J. E. Granger, and N. A. C. Brown. 1994. Plant-derived smoke and smoke extracts stimulate seed germination of the fire-climax grass Themeda triandra. Environmental and Experimental Botany 34:217–223.
4. Copeland, T. E., W. Sluis, and H. F. Howe. 2002. Fire season and dominance in an Illinois tallgrass prairie restoration. Restoration Ecology 10:315–323.
5. Corbin, J. D., and C. M. D’Antonio. 2004. Competition between native perennial and exotic annual grasses: implications for an historical invasion. Ecology 85:1273–1283.
6. Corbin, J. D., C. D’Antonio, and S. J. Bainbridge. 2004. Tipping the balance in the restoration of native plants. Pages 154–179 in M. S. Gordon and S. M. Bartol, editors. Experimental approaches in conservation biology. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA.
7. Dirzo, R., C. C. Horvitz, H. Quevedo, and M. A. Lopez. 1992. The effects of gap size and age on the understorey herb community of a tropical Mexican rain forest. Journal of Ecology 80:809–822.
8. DiTomaso, J. M., G. B. Kyser, and M. S. Hastings. 1999. Prescribed burning for control of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) and enhanced native plant diversity. Weed Science 47:233–242.
9. Dyer, A. R. 2003. Burning and grazing management in a California grassland: growth, mortality, and recruitment of Nassella pulchra. Restoration Ecology 11:291–296.
10. Engle, D. M., M. W. Palmer, J. S. Crockett, R. L. Mitchell, and R. Stevens. 2000. Influence of late season fire on early successional vegetation of an Oklahoma prairie. Journal of Vegetation Science 11:135–144.
11. Flematti, G. R. 2004. A compound from smoke that promotes seed germination. Science 305:977–977.
12. Fuhlendorf, S. D., and D. M. Engle. 2004. Application of the fire–grazing interaction to restore a shifting mosaic on tallgrass prairie. Journal of Applied Ecology 41:604–614.
13. Fukami, T., T. M. Bezemer, S. R. Mortimer, and W. H. van der Putten. 2005. Species divergence and trait convergence in experimental plant community assembly. Ecology Letters 8:1283–1290.
14. Ghebrehiwot, H. M., M. G. Kulkarni, G. Szalai, V. Soós, E. Balázs, and J. Van Staden. 2013. Karrikinolide residues in grassland soils following fire: implications on germination activity. South African Journal of Botany 88:419–424.
15. Grime, J. P. 1973. Competitive exclusion in herbaceous vegetation. Nature 242:344–347.
16. Grime, J. P. 1988. The C-S-R model of primary plant strategies—origins, implications and tests. Pages 371–393 in L. D. Gottlieb and S. K. Jain, editors. Plant evolutionary biology. Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
17. Guo, Q. 2001. Early post-fire succession in California chaparral: changes in diversity, density, cover and biomass. Ecological Research 16:471–485.
18. Hayes, G. F., and K. D. Holl. 2003. Cattle grazing impacts on annual forbs and vegetation composition of mesic grasslands in California. Conservation Biology 17:1694–1702.
19. Hervey, D. F. 1949. Reaction of a California annualplant community to fire. Journal of Range Management 2:116–121.
20. Hodge, S., W. Arthur, and P. Mitchell. 1996. Effects of temporal priority on interspecific interactions and community development. Oikos 76:350–358.
21. Holmes, K. A., K. E. Veblen, A. M. Berry, and T. P. Young. 2011. Effects of prescribed fires on young valley oak trees at a research restoration site in the Central Valley of California. Restoration Ecology 19:118–125.
22. Howe, H. F. 2011. Fire season and prairie forb richness in a 21-y experiment. Ecoscience 18:317–328.
23. Keeley, J. E. 1987. Role of fire in seed germination of woody taxa in California chaparral. Ecology 68:434–443.
24. Keeley, J. E. 2006. South Coast bioregion. Pages 350– 390 in N. Sugihara, J. W. van Wagtendonk, K. E. Shaffer, J. Fites-Kaufman, and A. E. Thode, editors. Fire in California’s ecosystems. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA.
25. Keeley, J. E., and C. J. Fotheringham. 1997. Trace gas emissions and smoke-induced seed germination. Science 276:1248–1250.
26. Lulow, M. 2004. Restoration in California’s inland grasslands: The role of priority effects and management strategies in establishing native communities, and the ability of native grasses to resist invasion by non-native grasses. Dissertation. University of California, Davis, California, USA.
27. Meyer, M. D., and P. M. Schiffman. 1999. Fire season and mulch reduction in a California grassland: a comparison of restoration strategies. Madroño 46:25–37.
28. Morrison, D. A., G. J. Gary, S. M. Pengley, D. G. Ross, B. J. Mullins, C. S. Thomas, and T. S. Anderson. 1995. Effects of fire frequency on plant species composition of sandstone communities in the Sydney region: inter-fire interval and time-sincefire. Australian Journal of Ecology 20:239–247.
29. Moyes, A. B., M. S. Witter, and J. A. Gamon. 2005. Restoration of native perennials in a California annual grassland after prescribed spring burning and solarization. Restoration Ecology 13:659–666.
30. Pake, C. E., and D. L. Venable. 1996. Seed banks in desert annuals: implications for persistence and coexistence in variable environments. Ecology 77:1427–1435.
31. Porensky, L. M., K. J. Vaughn, and T. P. Young. 2012. Can initial intraspecific spatial aggregation increase multi-year coexistence by creating temporal priority? Ecological Applications 22:927–936.
32. Porensky, L. M., S. E. Wittman, C. Riginos, and T. P. Young. 2013. Herbivory and drought interact to enhance spatial patterning and diversity in a savanna understory. Oecologia 173:591–602.
33. R Development Core Team. 2014. R version 3.1.0. R. A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
34. Read, T. R., and S. M. Bellairs. 1999. Smoke affects the germination of native grasses of New South Wales. Australian Journal of Botany 47:563–576.
35. Reiner, R. J. 2007. Fire in California grasslands. Pages 207–217 in M. R. Stromberg, J. D. Corbin, and C. M. D’Antonio, editors. California grasslands: ecology and management. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA.
36. Reynolds, C. J., R. L. Long, G. R. Flematti, H. Cherry, and S. R. Turner. 2014. Karrikins promote germination of physiologically dormant seeds of Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. monilifera (boneseed). Weed Research 54:48–57.
37. Schoennagel, T., E. A. H. Smithwick, and M. G. Turner. 2008. Landscape heterogeneity following large fires: insights from Yellowstone National Park, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire 17:742–753.
38. Seabloom, E. W., O. N. Bjørnstad, B. M. Bolker, and O. J. Reichman. 2005. Spatial signature of environmental heterogeneity, dispersal, and competition in successional grasslands. Ecological Monographs 75:199–214.
39. Shannon, C. E. 1948. A mathematical theory of communication. Bell System Technical Journal 27:623–656.
40. Stoll, P., and D. Prati. 2001. Intraspecific aggregation alters competitive interactions in experimental plant communities. Ecology 82:319–327.
41. Stromberg, M. R., T. P. Young, J. Wirka, and P. R. Kephart. 2007. California grassland restoration. Pages 254–280 in M. R. Stromberg, J. D. Corbin, and C. M. D’Antonio, editors. California grasslands: ecology and management. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA.
42. Swiecki, T. J., and E. Bernhardt. 1998. Effects of fire on naturally occurring blue oak (Quercus douglasii) saplings. Seventh workshop on seedling physiology and growth problems in oak plantings. September 27–29, 1998, South Lake Tahoe, California. USDA Forest Service North Central Research Station, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
43. Tilman, D. 1985. The resource-ratio hypothesis of plant succession. American Naturalist 125:827–852.
44. Veblen, K. E., K. A. Holmes, and T. P. Young. 2007. Response of one-year-old planted native grasses to controlled burns (California). Ecological Restoration 25:50–51.
45. Watt, A. S. 1947. Pattern and process in the plant community. Journal of Ecology 35:1–22.
46. Wills, R. 2006. Central Valley bioregion. Pages 295–320 in N. Sugihara, J. W. van Wagtendonk, K. E. Shaffer, J. Fites-Kaufman, and A. E. Thode, editors. Fire in California’s ecosystems. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA.
47. Young, S. L., J. N. Barney, G. B. Kyser, T. S. Jones, and J. M. DiTomaso. 2009. Functionally similar species confer greater resistance to invasion: implications for grassland restoration. Restoration Ecology 17:884–892.
48. Yurkonis, K. A., and T. P. McKenna. 2014. Aggregating species at seeding may increase initial diversity during grassland reconstruction. Ecological Restoration 32:275–281.