Effects of disturbance on diversity in mixed-grass prairie

✍ Scribed by Collins, Scott L. ;Barber, Susan C.

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 674 KB
• Volume: 64
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5052
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00044784

✦ Synopsis

Seven grassland treatments representing different disturbance regimes were sampled within a large area of mixed-grass prairie in southwestern Oklahoma, USA. Species diversity was low on the undisturbed and most severely disturbed grasslands. The results also indicate, however, that grassland diversity was not a simple function of disturbance rate, size or intensity. Instead, species diversity was maximized under a combination of natural disturbances. To some extent, the increase in species diversity was the result of increased habitat diversity associated with a type of disturbance. That is, disturbances such as grazing and wallowing have a cumulative effect one grassland diversity. Overall, the structure one grassland communities can not be accurately determined without considering the structure of the natural disturbance regime.