Timing of prescribed burns impacts plant diversity but not investment in pollinator recruitment in a tallgrass prairie

Published: 1 September 2021| Version 3 | DOI: 10.17632/mxz9r5wmv9.3
Contributors:
Bethany Roberton, Darren Rebar

Description

Utilizing three seasons of burn (spring, summer, and fall), we examined the effects of prescribed fire on forb abundance and diversity as well as nectar sucrose concentration in a tallgrass prairie near Emporia, Kansas. Our findings were that summer-burned plots had the highest diversity of budding and flowering forbs closely followed by fall-burned plots and then spring-burned plots. Abundance of forbs as well as nectar sucrose concentrations were not effected by season of burn. The attached datasets include our nectar sucrose concentration data for two milkweed species (A. tuberosa and A. viridis) as well as the plant survey data from all 9 plots. For our plant surveys, we used abundances and effective species numbers to calculate our forb density and diversity.

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Categories

Ecology, Entomology, Sucrose, Perennial, Prairie, Fire

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