Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. David Hoekman
For Communication to Presenters & Mentors
jebecksfort@olivet.edu, dshoekman@olivet.edu
Project Type
Honors Program project
Scholarship Domain(s)
Scholarship of Discovery
Presentation Type
Presentation
Abstract
Prairie management is an involved process that is focused on maintaining existing grassland plant and animal communities. Invasive species and the spread of woody shrubs and trees presents a real threat to the existing prairie. Woody stems can affect resources such as water access and nutrient availability, which may cause changes to the prairie’s unique plant communities. Management techniques like burning and mowing are commonly used to prevent woody stems from causing changes to the prairie ecosystem. The Sanctuary was restored to natural prairie habitat in 2008 and a list of planted species is available. However, no plant surveys have been conducted since the land’s restoration, leaving a gap in knowledge as to the Sanctuary’s current plant communities. The goal of this study will be to document existing prairie plant communities at the Sanctuary, compare the existing plant community to the original Sanctuary restoration plans from 2008, and research how mowing and burning may affect plant and animal communities in the future. This research will inform our management of the sanctuary moving forward.
To that end, we will measure plant and arthropod communities in grasslands at the Sanctuary. Pitfall traps will be used for arthropod sampling; transects will be used for plant surveys, and plots will be burned and mowed in order to observe differences between management techniques. We will establish 6 plots, one mowed and five burned, each containing three sets of paired subplots – three inside the area and three outside the area. Each subplot will contain a pitfall trap, and each subplot will also be observed for plant species richness. Additionally, ten twenty-minute transects will be taken across the prairie over the course of the growing season. Plant species, their relative abundance, and the emergence of flowers will be recorded. Plant biomass will be collected at the end of the growing season.
We expect to find that the grassland plant community will be significantly different from the species composition planted in 2008, with the loss of planted species and the addition of invasive and native local species. We also expect that plots of burned land will have more biomass and more species than mowed or unmanaged areas. Finally, we anticipate that burned plots will contain significantly fewer ground-dwelling arthropods than other management techniques due to a loss of leaf litter.
Permission Type
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Included in
Other Earth Sciences Commons, Other Environmental Sciences Commons, Other Plant Sciences Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons
Summer 2024 Research Proposal: Swanberg Sanctuary Prairie Plant Community Characterization and Management Testing
Fishbowl
Prairie management is an involved process that is focused on maintaining existing grassland plant and animal communities. Invasive species and the spread of woody shrubs and trees presents a real threat to the existing prairie. Woody stems can affect resources such as water access and nutrient availability, which may cause changes to the prairie’s unique plant communities. Management techniques like burning and mowing are commonly used to prevent woody stems from causing changes to the prairie ecosystem. The Sanctuary was restored to natural prairie habitat in 2008 and a list of planted species is available. However, no plant surveys have been conducted since the land’s restoration, leaving a gap in knowledge as to the Sanctuary’s current plant communities. The goal of this study will be to document existing prairie plant communities at the Sanctuary, compare the existing plant community to the original Sanctuary restoration plans from 2008, and research how mowing and burning may affect plant and animal communities in the future. This research will inform our management of the sanctuary moving forward.
To that end, we will measure plant and arthropod communities in grasslands at the Sanctuary. Pitfall traps will be used for arthropod sampling; transects will be used for plant surveys, and plots will be burned and mowed in order to observe differences between management techniques. We will establish 6 plots, one mowed and five burned, each containing three sets of paired subplots – three inside the area and three outside the area. Each subplot will contain a pitfall trap, and each subplot will also be observed for plant species richness. Additionally, ten twenty-minute transects will be taken across the prairie over the course of the growing season. Plant species, their relative abundance, and the emergence of flowers will be recorded. Plant biomass will be collected at the end of the growing season.
We expect to find that the grassland plant community will be significantly different from the species composition planted in 2008, with the loss of planted species and the addition of invasive and native local species. We also expect that plots of burned land will have more biomass and more species than mowed or unmanaged areas. Finally, we anticipate that burned plots will contain significantly fewer ground-dwelling arthropods than other management techniques due to a loss of leaf litter.