Management of prairies and wet sedge meadowsDr. Beth Middleton, USGS National Wetlands Research Center

James Bay peatland

Yellow Rail Habitat-short sedge & grass COSEWIC 2009

Preservation Era: woody species invasion

Cornus sericea

Longwa Lake National Park, NE China

guerrilla – long internodesspread into new habitat

phalanx – short internodes fully occupy existing habitat

shrub/macrophyte invasion & landuse change

Appendix Middleton 2013 – 63 worldwide examples

Australian grasslandYibarbuk et al. 2001

Palo Verde NP Costa RicaMcCoy et al. 2001

Lodi Marsh State Preserve, WI USAMiddleton 2002a, b, Middleton 2013

Longwa Lake NP NE ChinaMiddleton 2013

Keoladeo NP, IndiaMiddleton et al. 1993

How is high biodiversity maintained?

+ =

Fuhlendorf et al. 2001, 2004, 2008Bachelet 2000

combined disturbance

photo: Jane Austinphoto: Lisa Jolly

Sources of biodiversity?

The Players

Lilium michiganense

Cirsium hillii

Why does this fen have high moth diversity?

Dry to wet prairie fen gradient – multi-habitat.

Recurring fire/herbivory opening space for herbs.

Lodi Marsh, WI

Removal of tall vegetation is key!

Worldwide ecosystem succession driven by disturbance.

Shrub removal by cattle similar to bison?

Bison vs Cattle: same or different shrub effect?-N Am bison & cattle similar impacts (Plumb & Dodd 1993)

-both eat and knock down shrubs-Is it succession? A disturbance response?-what’s natural?

Era of Land Usage Hunter-Gatherer → Traditional Farmer → Preservationist

Management Pre-cultural Disturbance Restrictive Reserves Traditional AgricultureGrazer Type bison: Europe/N America no bison low density cattle: Europe, China,

hippopotamus: Africa N. America, Australia, India, Africa elephant: Africa water buffalo: Asia

kangaroo: Australia sheep/goat: W N America, Europe, nilgai, black buck: India Mediterranean, India nutria: South America

Fire yes (annual): N America no yes (generally)

Mowing/Hand no no yes (N. America, Europe, China,Cutting Africa, India

Middleton 2013

Traditional agriculturalist wet grassland management-cattle grazing-wood cutting-fire

Traditional Agriculturalist & Native American Management-fire, wood cutting, grazing reduced shrubs-included both fire and grazing-maintained biodiversity

photo: Lisa Jolly

worldwide abandonment of traditional agriculture-intensification after WWII-grasslands fire/grazing ceased

photo: Jason Tesauro

Tesauro & Ehrenfeld 2007

Bog turtles declined in New York State as dairy farms abandoned.

Cattle Grazing Intensification & Crash, 1846-2013 Middleton 2002a

Lodi Marsh, WI

EU Nature Preserves – low density cattle grazing-vegetation unchanged over the last 50 years

Wesche et al. 2012

non-equilibrium – no return to original conditionheavy sustained grazing may damage permanently

normal raindrought,fire

flooded fendry fen

regenerationseed bank

normal rain, snowmelt, groundwater

cattle grazing

Middleton 2006a

ReferenceSedge

Meadow

GrazedSedge

Meadow

RecoveringSedge

Meadow?

Shrub carr

Carex stricta Pycnanthemum/Cornus seedling

Aster/SolidagoCornus sapling

Cornussapling

Cornusadult

0 years 4-9 years 24 years futurenot grazed

Carex tussock damage by cattle

0 Yr 4 Yr 10/20Yr

15 Yr 20 Yr 35 Yr

11.9 15.9 16.1

18.0 13.831.5

grazed:

Carex tussock height after cattle grazingF = 3.6, p < 0.05

reference:

Middleton 2002a, b

1977

no dogwood invasion in reference site

non-equilibrium post grazing

2007Middleton 2002a

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Lodi Marsh

Is burning enough?

Fire related to short term biodiversity-burst of flowering, seed set

winter – poor shrub removal

rail – short vegetation

How can we create proper mix of disturbance?- a look at worldwide methods…..

+ =

Middleton 2013

combined disturbance

photo: Jane Austinphoto: Lisa Jolly

reintroduce European or American bison & fire

+ =

Kuemerle et al. 2010; Middleton 2013

combined disturbance

photo: Jane Austinphoto: Lisa Jolly

-burning & cutting – North America & Australia-cutting, mowing, cattle – Europe-goats/cows to eat brambles

Other ways to have grazing and fire…..

Middleton et al. 2006

Traditional farmers grazing, cutting, haying & burningVolunteers now do cutting and burning (Europe & US)Laborers in developing countries (India)

photo: van Diggelen

Questad et al. 2011 – haying in NA

photos: Will BondAlaska Environmental Contracting Ltd, Stokeford Farm, East Stoke Wareham, Dorset, UK

Post-Grazing

Seeds in Barn HayAmbrosia artemisiifoliaCirsium arvensePlantago rugeliiTaraxacum officinaleTrifolium hybridum(Mt Pleasant & Schlather 1994)

Epizoochorous Cirsium arvense

FacilitatorCornus sericea

Dairy Barn → Prairie Fen

Nature management herds fed marsh hay?Grazing with horse/cow/goat kept in special paddock?

Risk of introducing exotic species…..

Native Typha latifolia in Lodi Marsh, WI (most likely)

Literature Cited

Bachelet, D., Lenihan, J.M., Daly, C., Neilson, R.P., 2000. Interactions between fire, grazing and climate at Wind Cave National Park, S.D. Ecol. Model. 134: 229-244.

COSEWIC. 2009. COSEWIC assessment and status report on the yellow rail Coturnicops noveboracensis in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. 1-62 pp. http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/virtual_sara/files/cosewic/sr_Yellow%20Rail_0810_e.pdf

Fuhlendorf, S.D., Engle, D.M., 2001. Restoring heterogeneity on rangelands: ecosystem management based on evolutionary grazing patterns. BioScience 51: 625-635.

Fuhlendorf, S.D., Engle, D.M., 2004. Application of the fire─grazing interaction to restore a shifting mosaic on tallgrass prairie. J. Appl. Ecol. 41, 604-614.

Fuhlendorf, S.D., Engle, D.M., Kerby, J., Hamilton, R., 2008. Pyric herbivory: rewilding landscapes through the recoupling of fire and grazing. Conserv. Biol. 23: 588-598.

Kuemmerle, T., et al. 2010. European bison habitat in the Carpathian Mountains. Biological Conservation 143:908-916.

McCoy, M.B., Rodriguez, J.M., 1994. Cattail (Typha dominguensis) eradication methods in the restoration of a tropical, seasonal, freshwater marsh, in: Mitsch, W.J. (Ed.), Global Wetlands: Old World and New. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 469-482.

Middleton, B.A. 2002a. Nonequilibrium dynamics of sedge meadows grazed by cattle in southern Wisconsin. Plant Ecology 161:89-110. www.springerlink.com/content/v0l42625k0g21141/

Middleton, B.A. 2002b. Winter burning and the reduction of Cornus sericea in sedge meadows in southern Wisconsin. Restoration Ecology 10:1-8. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1526-100X.2002.01053.x/abstract?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+17+March

Middleton, B.A., B. Holsten, B., R. van Diggelen, R. 2006. Biodiversity management of fens and fen meadows by grazing, cutting and burning. Applied Vegetation Science 9:307-316. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2006.tb00680.x/abstract

Middleton, B.A. 2013. Rediscovering traditional vegetation management in preserves: trading experiences between cultures and continents. Biological Conservation 158:271-279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.10.003

Middleton, B.A., van der Valk, A.G., Williams, R.L., Mason, D.J., C.B. Davis, C.B. 1991. Vegetation dynamics and seed banks of a monsoonal wetland overgrown with Paspalum distichum in northern India. Aquatic Botany 40:239-259. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304377091900619

Mt. Pleasant J., Schlather, K.J., 1994. Incidence of weed seed in cow (Boss sp.) manure and its importance as a weed source for cropland. Weed Tech. 8: 304-310.

Plumb, G.E., Dodd, J.L., 1993. Foraging ecology of bison and cattle on a mixed prairie: implications for natural area management. Ecol. Appl. 3: 631-643.

Questad, E. J., Foster, B.L., Jog, S., Kindscher, K., Loring, H. 2011. Evaluating patterns of biodiversity in managed grasslands using spatial turnover metrics. Biological Conservation 144:1050-1058

Tesauro, J., Ehrenfeld, D. 2007. The effects of livestock grazing on the bog turtle [Glyptemys (+Clemmys) muhlenbergii]. Herpetologica 63:293-300.

van Diggelen, R., Middleton, B. J. Bakker, A. Grootjans and M. Wassen. 2006. Fens and floodplains of the temperate zone – Present status, threats, conservation and restoration. Applied Vegetation Science 9:157-162.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2006.tb00664.x/abstract

Wang, G., B.A. Middleton, M. Jiang. 2013. Restoration potential of sedge meadows in hand-cultivated soybean fields in northeastern China. Restoration Ecology http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12015/abstract.Wesche, K., Krause, B., Culmsee, H., Leuschner, C., 2012. Fifty years of change in Central European grassland vegetation: large losses in species richness and animal-pollinated plants. Biol. Conserv. 150, 76-85.

Yibarbuk, D., Whitehead, P.J., Russell-Smith, J., Jackson, D., Godjuwa, C., Fisher, A., Cooke, P., Choquenot, D., Bowman, D.M.J.S., 2001. Fire ecology and aboriginal land management in central Arnhem Land, northern Australia: a tradition of ecosystem management. J. Biogeogr. 28, 325-343.