Long-term effects of haying and prescribed fire on the composition and diversity of wet prairie plant communities.

ABSTRACT: Plant species composition and diversity in many terrestrial ecosystems depend on frequent disturbances. Management of these historically disturbance-dependent habitats often requires replicating past disturbance regimes or implementing management approaches that mimic their ecological effects. For example, efforts to manage North American tallgrass prairie frequently utilize prescribed fire to maintain these historically fire-dependent grasslands. However, alternatives to prescribed fire, such as haying, have attracted the interest of conservation practitioners and landowners. The paucity of long-term experiments, especially in wet prairies and sedge meadows, limits our understanding of how these different management techniques influence the composition and diversity of such perennial-domi

SUBMITTER: Beck JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12301583 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature