{"id":7838,"date":"2016-02-24T11:32:33","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T11:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=7838"},"modified":"2016-02-24T11:32:33","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T11:32:33","slug":"7838","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/7838\/","title":{"rendered":"60 years after pioneering survey, Wisconsin prairies are changing rapidly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Dewey<\/a>
Dewey Heights Prairie State Natural Area in Nelson Dewey State Park, located in Cassville, Wisconsin. PHOTO: AMY ALSTAD –<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was shortly after the end of World War II when\u00a0John Curtis<\/span><\/a>, inspired by his service as a civilian researcher aiding war efforts in Haiti, dedicated his energies to studying the ecology of Wisconsin\u2019s plants. The late botany professor at the University of Wisconsin\u2014Madison was particularly enamored of prairies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Between 1947 and 1956, Curtis and his colleagues and students conducted their prairie relic study, surveying more than 200 undisturbed prairie remnants in Wisconsin \u2014 walking each in its entirety while keeping lists of every plant species they found.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In 1987, then-UW-Madison graduate student Mark Leach used Curtis\u2019 original notes and maps to resurvey some of these prairies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the journal\u00a0Science Advances<\/span><\/a>, another UW\u2013Madison graduate student,\u00a0Amy Alstad<\/span><\/a>, and a team of researchers have published a third survey based on Curtis\u2019 legacy work. They found that human influence has accelerated the rate of species change in these prairies, and that fire and prairie size affect the overall plant species diversity found within them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Botany<\/a>
Botany professors John T. Curtis (right) and Dave Archbald work with paper bags of tall grasses in 1951. PHOTO: UW\u2013MADISON ARCHIVES –<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe know Curtis selected those sites in the 1940s and 50s because they represented the best remaining prairies in Wisconsin at the time,\u201d says Alstad, the study\u2019s lead author. \u201cWhat became apparent was that things are very, very different now than they were.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Not only do the findings provide critical information to land managers and state and private agencies committed to preserving Wisconsin\u2019s landscape, but\u00a0the results are also likely to describe what is happening in other natural places, say Alstad and her advisor, co-author\u00a0Ellen Damschen<\/span><\/a>, associate professor of zoology.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is very likely this trend is common to a lot of ecosystems because we live in an era of novel human impacts,\u201d says Alstad. \u201cWhile ecologists used to think about soils or rainfall, all of a sudden there is a whole new suite of drivers \u2014 most of them related to human activities \u2014 that are simultaneously acting on natural systems.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, a changing climate and loss of habitat have affected prairie ecosystems, and while fire used to be commonplace on the prairie, people have fundamentally changed the nature of the landscape by suppressing this natural disturbance.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For the study, Alstad drove throughout southwestern Wisconsin three times in the summer of 2012, revisiting the original Curtis prairies. She used Curtis\u2019 original field notes in combination with modern satellite technology to find those that still existed and could be resurveyed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really was going back to the dusty old, faded yellow sheets from John Curtis, trying to decipher his cursive handwriting and hand-drawn maps,\u201d Alstad says. And just like Curtis, she walked through the prairies, checking off all the plant species she encountered.<\/span><\/p>\n

She compared her findings to those from the previous surveys to uncover what had changed over time. In the years between the second survey in the 1980s \u2014 which examined 50 remaining prairies \u2014 and the third in 2012, one prairie could not be found, one had become a homeowner\u2019s front yard and another had been paved over.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Amy<\/a>
Amy Alstad stands in a bunch of Sawtooth Sunflowers that she describes as glorious. PHOTO: JESSE MILLER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t rare for me to drive up to a site in 2012, 60 years later, and have this moment where I\u2019m looking at Curtis\u2019 map but saying: \u2018This is a forest; it\u2019s totally filled in,\u201d Alstad says. \u201cThat observation inspired me to really dig in to see how things are changing. And I learned there\u2019s been a big uptick in the pace of change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The team examined the relationship between the characteristics of each prairie remnant \u2014 soil moisture, total prairie area, and the number of fires the prairie remnant experienced \u2014 and what species had disappeared (extinction) or appeared for the first time (colonization).<\/span><\/p>\n

They learned that between the second and third surveys, the disappearance of species tripled while the appearance of new species not indigenous to prairies had doubled when compared to the years between the first and second survey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some sites, the research team found, had fewer than 18 percent of the species documented in the 1950s survey, and some were now made up of more than 60 percent non-native species.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMore than one species is being lost in the average year,\u201d says Alstad. \u201cThe species that we\u2019re losing most frequently are specialist prairie plants, like rattlesnake master.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The species that are showing up instead, Alstad and Damschen say, are more generalist plants, like those you might find in a roadside ditch or in a thick, brambled woods.<\/span><\/p>\n

[pullquote]Predicting future ecosystems is also inherently challenging, but Damschen says, \u201cIn general, we know that the more species you have in an ecosystem, the more resilient the ecosystem is to other changes in the future.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, it\u2019s fast-growing weedy trees,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s box elder, it\u2019s buckthorn, it\u2019s honeysuckle, and probably a big part of their success is the absence of fire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the prairies she studied, Alstad found those that have been burned with controlled, prescribed fires were most similar to the prairies Curtis described six decades ago. Twelve of the remnants she studied had burned anywhere from one to 30 times in the years since.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of interest in restoring native habitat in this part of the world,\u201d says Damschen. \u201cThinking about fire as helpful rather than harmful, which has been a cultural perception, is a shift we have begun to see, and hopefully it becomes more commonplace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alstad attributes this skepticism of the benefits of fire to the \u201cSmokey the Bear effect,\u201d since many people internalize messages they received as children about the detriments of fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to burning prairies, Alstad and Damschen say successful land management must recognize the needs of all species because conflicts can occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, while good for maintaining the historical composition of prairies, using fire is complicated by other logistical constraints, Damschen says, noting that the\u00a0Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium<\/span><\/a>, based at UW\u2013Madison, ties together existing fire-based research and communicates it to managers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Predicting future ecosystems is also inherently challenging, but Damschen says, \u201cIn general, we know that the more species you have in an ecosystem, the more resilient the ecosystem is to other changes in the future. If you lose species, the function of those species is lost and that has implications for human well-being and the future of southern Wisconsin\u2019s natural communities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many species in a prairie are involved in retaining water to protect against drought, absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide to buffer against greenhouse gas effects, and more. Many individual plants have been alive in the prairie for a century or longer, Damschen says, not unlike the iconic redwoods in the Pacific Northwest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur results are in alignment with the idea of an \u2018extinction debt,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cSome species are very long-lived and it might take them a long time to respond to current impacts, but it\u2019s a debt that will eventually come due.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Damschen and Alstad say there is hope. Never has Damschen lived in a place with more passion for a single habitat, and Alstad says there are many opportunities for Wisconsin residents to get involved in efforts to restore prairie.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Ellen<\/a>
Ellen Damschen says the loss of species in an ecosystem has implications for human well-being and the future of natural communities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Their research shows that work by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and others to protect and restore remnant prairies and their surroundings helps retain species diversity. Citizen efforts to plant prairie species on their property or volunteer with local management efforts to restore prairie will undoubtedly aid in this effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it\u2019s not in a professional capacity, we can be land stewards for prairies,\u201d Alstad says. Because if we do nothing, in another 60 years, \u201cthere will be no prairie in southern Wisconsin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on how to get involved and support prairies, the researchers recommend the following resources:\u00a0Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium<\/span><\/a>, the\u00a0UW Arboretum<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(home to the world\u2019s oldest restored prairie, named for John Curtis), and\u00a0The Prairie Enthusiasts<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The study was funded by Prairie Biotic Research, the UW\u2013Madison Zoology Department, and the Kettle Moraine Garden Club Scholarship Fund. Other co-authors include UW\u2013Madison\u2019s Thomas Givnish, John Harrington and Donald Waller; Mark Leach, now of Integral Sustainability Consulting; and UW-Parkside\u2019s David Rogers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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