MATUA PRAIRIE GRASS ESTABLISHMENT

Photoinhibition of germination in grass seed--implications for prairie revegetation.

Germination photoinhibition is not a recognized cause of revegetation failure; yet prolonged sunlight exposure can inhibit germination of several grass species. This research addressed susceptibility to photoinhibition of selected native grass species used to restore Canadian prairies, and reclamation treatments to alter environmental conditions in order to release seeds from photoinhibition. U...

Predicting Nitrogen Content in the Northern Mixed-Grass Prairie

Forage quality and quantity are important factors affecting livestock production from grazing lands. ‘‘Greenness’’ has been proposed as an indicator of herbage quality in semiarid environments, particularly nitrogen (N) content. The objective of this study was to assess the potential of estimating N content of forage using dead:green ratios and accumulated growing-degreedays (AGDD). Standing cr...

Competition of Western Wheat Grass with Relict Vegetation of Prairie

Quantification of Climate Conditions Important to the Tall Grass Prairie

The geologic history of the tall grass prairie in central North America reveals the prairie began developing 10,000 years ago after the Pleistocene ice sheets had retreated into Canada. The long-lived triangular shaped prairie survived several climatic shifts during the Holocene. Scientists have studied the anomaly—grasses where many climate conditions indicate forests should have been growing—...

Research Note Shrub Microsite Influences Post-Fire Perennial Grass Establishment

Woody plants can cause localized increases in resources (i.e., resource islands) that can persist after fire and create a heterogeneous environment for restoration. Others have found that subcanopies have increased soil organic matter, nitrogen, and carbon and elevated post-fire soil temperature. We tested the hypothesis that burned sagebrush subcanopies would have increased seedling establishm...