•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Saratoga Landing Blackland Prairie is a 75-ha site owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and managed cooperatively with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission to protect its blackland prairie community and rare plant species. The site is a complex of prairies and forests, as interpreted from aerial photos and maps. It was substantially prairie at the time of settlement, and forest cover did not increase greatly until after 1951, apparently due to effective suppression of wildfires after that time. Plot sampling characterizes an individual prairie on the site as being dominated by a herbaceous canopy, but with a substantial woody plant cover (15%-20%). Of the herbaceous vegetation, Andropogon scoparius is dominant, with lower seasonal production than the Grand Prairie of eastern Arkansas (147 g/m^2 vs. 800 g/m^2). A recent prescribed burn resulted in a doubling of herbaceous end-of-season biomass, top-killing (but resprouting) of many woody plants, elimination of mulch and increased bare ground.

Download

Share

COinS