✍ Scribed by R.N. Wilkins; G.T. Tanner; R. Mulholland; D.G. Neary
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The response of vegetation of a central Florida, USA, xeric sandhill site was tested for 0.42, 0.84, and 1.68 kg/ha active ingredient spot-grid applications of the herbicide hexazinone in a randomized complete block design (three replications of each treatment and an untreated control). The site had been excluded from fire for approximately 40 years, and the characteristically open longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savannah had developed a thick midstory of evergreen scrub oak species. Shading and litter accumulation had resulted in a sparse ground cover with only a weak component of the once ubiquitous wiregrass (Aristida stricta). Our primary goal was to determine hexazinone rates suitable for releasing understory herbaceous vegetation (especially wiregrass) from midstory oak suppression. At 1 year post-treatment, proportion mortality of midstory oaks increased with increasing hexazinone rate (P < 0.05) and decreased with increasing oak diameter. Oaks with diameters > 14 cm experienced no mortality. Proportional change in understory cover by oaks also decreased with increasing hexazinone rate, while wiregrass cover increased with increasing hexazinone rate. Wiregrass biomass responded to treatment rate in a nonlinear fashion, possibly due to differences in top-kill. Treatment responses for woody non-oak species, and forbs could not be detected.
📜 SIMILAR VOLUMES