management of prairies and wet sedge meadows
DESCRIPTION
Management of prairies and wet sedge meadows Dr. Beth Middleton, USGS National Wetlands Research Center. James Bay peatland. Yellow Rail Habitat -short sedge & grass COSEWIC 2009. Cornus sericea. Preservation Era: woody species invasion. Longwa Lake National Park, NE China. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Management of prairies and wet sedge meadowsDr. Beth Middleton, USGS National Wetlands Research Center
James Bay peatland
Yellow Rail Habitat-short sedge & grass COSEWIC 2009
Preservation Era: woody species invasion
Cornus sericea
Longwa Lake National Park, NE China
guerrilla – long internodesspread into new habitat
phalanx – short internodes fully occupy existing habitat
shrub/macrophyte invasion & landuse change
Appendix Middleton 2013 – 63 worldwide examples
Australian grasslandYibarbuk et al. 2001
Palo Verde NP Costa RicaMcCoy et al. 2001
Lodi Marsh State Preserve, WI USAMiddleton 2002a, b, Middleton 2013
Longwa Lake NP NE ChinaMiddleton 2013
Keoladeo NP, IndiaMiddleton et al. 1993
How is high biodiversity maintained?
+ =
Fuhlendorf et al. 2001, 2004, 2008Bachelet 2000
combined disturbance
photo: Jane Austinphoto: Lisa Jolly
Sources of biodiversity?
The Players
Lilium michiganense
Cirsium hillii
Why does this fen have high moth diversity?
Dry to wet prairie fen gradient – multi-habitat.
Recurring fire/herbivory opening space for herbs.
Lodi Marsh, WI
Removal of tall vegetation is key!
Worldwide ecosystem succession driven by disturbance.
Shrub removal by cattle similar to bison?
Bison vs Cattle: same or different shrub effect?-N Am bison & cattle similar impacts (Plumb & Dodd 1993)
-both eat and knock down shrubs-Is it succession? A disturbance response?-what’s natural?
Era of Land Usage Hunter-Gatherer → Traditional Farmer → Preservationist
Management Pre-cultural Disturbance Restrictive Reserves Traditional AgricultureGrazer Type bison: Europe/N America no bison low density cattle: Europe, China,
hippopotamus: Africa N. America, Australia, India, Africa elephant: Africa water buffalo: Asia
kangaroo: Australia sheep/goat: W N America, Europe, nilgai, black buck: India Mediterranean, India nutria: South America
Fire yes (annual): N America no yes (generally)
Mowing/Hand no no yes (N. America, Europe, China,Cutting Africa, India
Middleton 2013
Traditional agriculturalist wet grassland management-cattle grazing-wood cutting-fire
Traditional Agriculturalist & Native American Management-fire, wood cutting, grazing reduced shrubs-included both fire and grazing-maintained biodiversity
photo: Lisa Jolly
worldwide abandonment of traditional agriculture-intensification after WWII-grasslands fire/grazing ceased
photo: Jason Tesauro
Tesauro & Ehrenfeld 2007
Bog turtles declined in New York State as dairy farms abandoned.
Cattle Grazing Intensification & Crash, 1846-2013 Middleton 2002a
Lodi Marsh, WI
EU Nature Preserves – low density cattle grazing-vegetation unchanged over the last 50 years
Wesche et al. 2012
non-equilibrium – no return to original conditionheavy sustained grazing may damage permanently
normal raindrought,fire
flooded fendry fen
regenerationseed bank
normal rain, snowmelt, groundwater
cattle grazing
Middleton 2006a
ReferenceSedge
Meadow
GrazedSedge
Meadow
RecoveringSedge
Meadow?
Shrub carr
Carex stricta Pycnanthemum/Cornus seedling
Aster/SolidagoCornus sapling
Cornussapling
Cornusadult
0 years 4-9 years 24 years futurenot grazed
Carex tussock damage by cattle
0 Yr 4 Yr 10/20Yr
15 Yr 20 Yr 35 Yr
11.9 15.9 16.1
18.0 13.831.5
grazed:
Carex tussock height after cattle grazingF = 3.6, p < 0.05
reference:
Middleton 2002a, b
1977
no dogwood invasion in reference site
non-equilibrium post grazing
2007Middleton 2002a
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Lodi Marsh
Is burning enough?
Fire related to short term biodiversity-burst of flowering, seed set
winter – poor shrub removal
rail – short vegetation
How can we create proper mix of disturbance?- a look at worldwide methods…..
+ =
Middleton 2013
combined disturbance
photo: Jane Austinphoto: Lisa Jolly
reintroduce European or American bison & fire
+ =
Kuemerle et al. 2010; Middleton 2013
combined disturbance
photo: Jane Austinphoto: Lisa Jolly
-burning & cutting – North America & Australia-cutting, mowing, cattle – Europe-goats/cows to eat brambles
Other ways to have grazing and fire…..
Middleton et al. 2006
Traditional farmers grazing, cutting, haying & burningVolunteers now do cutting and burning (Europe & US)Laborers in developing countries (India)
photo: van Diggelen
Questad et al. 2011 – haying in NA
photos: Will BondAlaska Environmental Contracting Ltd, Stokeford Farm, East Stoke Wareham, Dorset, UK
Post-Grazing
Seeds in Barn HayAmbrosia artemisiifoliaCirsium arvensePlantago rugeliiTaraxacum officinaleTrifolium hybridum(Mt Pleasant & Schlather 1994)
Epizoochorous Cirsium arvense
FacilitatorCornus sericea
Dairy Barn → Prairie Fen
Nature management herds fed marsh hay?Grazing with horse/cow/goat kept in special paddock?
Risk of introducing exotic species…..
Native Typha latifolia in Lodi Marsh, WI (most likely)
Literature Cited
Bachelet, D., Lenihan, J.M., Daly, C., Neilson, R.P., 2000. Interactions between fire, grazing and climate at Wind Cave National Park, S.D. Ecol. Model. 134: 229-244.
COSEWIC. 2009. COSEWIC assessment and status report on the yellow rail Coturnicops noveboracensis in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. 1-62 pp. http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/virtual_sara/files/cosewic/sr_Yellow%20Rail_0810_e.pdf
Fuhlendorf, S.D., Engle, D.M., 2001. Restoring heterogeneity on rangelands: ecosystem management based on evolutionary grazing patterns. BioScience 51: 625-635.
Fuhlendorf, S.D., Engle, D.M., 2004. Application of the fire─grazing interaction to restore a shifting mosaic on tallgrass prairie. J. Appl. Ecol. 41, 604-614.
Fuhlendorf, S.D., Engle, D.M., Kerby, J., Hamilton, R., 2008. Pyric herbivory: rewilding landscapes through the recoupling of fire and grazing. Conserv. Biol. 23: 588-598.
Kuemmerle, T., et al. 2010. European bison habitat in the Carpathian Mountains. Biological Conservation 143:908-916.
McCoy, M.B., Rodriguez, J.M., 1994. Cattail (Typha dominguensis) eradication methods in the restoration of a tropical, seasonal, freshwater marsh, in: Mitsch, W.J. (Ed.), Global Wetlands: Old World and New. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 469-482.
Middleton, B.A. 2002a. Nonequilibrium dynamics of sedge meadows grazed by cattle in southern Wisconsin. Plant Ecology 161:89-110. www.springerlink.com/content/v0l42625k0g21141/
Middleton, B.A. 2002b. Winter burning and the reduction of Cornus sericea in sedge meadows in southern Wisconsin. Restoration Ecology 10:1-8. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1526-100X.2002.01053.x/abstract?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+17+March
Middleton, B.A., B. Holsten, B., R. van Diggelen, R. 2006. Biodiversity management of fens and fen meadows by grazing, cutting and burning. Applied Vegetation Science 9:307-316. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2006.tb00680.x/abstract
Middleton, B.A. 2013. Rediscovering traditional vegetation management in preserves: trading experiences between cultures and continents. Biological Conservation 158:271-279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.10.003
Middleton, B.A., van der Valk, A.G., Williams, R.L., Mason, D.J., C.B. Davis, C.B. 1991. Vegetation dynamics and seed banks of a monsoonal wetland overgrown with Paspalum distichum in northern India. Aquatic Botany 40:239-259. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304377091900619
Mt. Pleasant J., Schlather, K.J., 1994. Incidence of weed seed in cow (Boss sp.) manure and its importance as a weed source for cropland. Weed Tech. 8: 304-310.
Plumb, G.E., Dodd, J.L., 1993. Foraging ecology of bison and cattle on a mixed prairie: implications for natural area management. Ecol. Appl. 3: 631-643.
Questad, E. J., Foster, B.L., Jog, S., Kindscher, K., Loring, H. 2011. Evaluating patterns of biodiversity in managed grasslands using spatial turnover metrics. Biological Conservation 144:1050-1058
Tesauro, J., Ehrenfeld, D. 2007. The effects of livestock grazing on the bog turtle [Glyptemys (+Clemmys) muhlenbergii]. Herpetologica 63:293-300.
van Diggelen, R., Middleton, B. J. Bakker, A. Grootjans and M. Wassen. 2006. Fens and floodplains of the temperate zone – Present status, threats, conservation and restoration. Applied Vegetation Science 9:157-162.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2006.tb00664.x/abstract
Wang, G., B.A. Middleton, M. Jiang. 2013. Restoration potential of sedge meadows in hand-cultivated soybean fields in northeastern China. Restoration Ecology http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12015/abstract.Wesche, K., Krause, B., Culmsee, H., Leuschner, C., 2012. Fifty years of change in Central European grassland vegetation: large losses in species richness and animal-pollinated plants. Biol. Conserv. 150, 76-85.
Yibarbuk, D., Whitehead, P.J., Russell-Smith, J., Jackson, D., Godjuwa, C., Fisher, A., Cooke, P., Choquenot, D., Bowman, D.M.J.S., 2001. Fire ecology and aboriginal land management in central Arnhem Land, northern Australia: a tradition of ecosystem management. J. Biogeogr. 28, 325-343.