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14. Ten Years Of Vegetation Observations On Formerly Grazed Oklahoma Grassland, Erica A. Corbett, Tim Patton

North American Prairie Conference Proceedings

In summer 2003, we established a series of 40 adjacent, 10310-m blocks in formerly grazed grassland in southcentral Oklahoma. The blocks were allowed to rest and received no grazing, mowing, or burning. We tracked changes in the vegetation of the site over time between 2005 and 2015. Frequency sampling of prairie vegetation was performed at irregular intervals. In spring 2006 we seeded half the site with a Texas/Oklahoma prairie forb mix. We found no significant trends of change in species richness or diversity over time. However, there were subtle changes in abundance of individual species. Across fall sampling periods, Shannon …