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Age Structure, Species Composition And Succession In A Loess Hills Woodland., Peter Christian Phillips
Age Structure, Species Composition And Succession In A Loess Hills Woodland., Peter Christian Phillips
Student Work
The Loess Hills of central North America is a unique geologic region that historically was dominated by prairie with scattered oak trees in an environment of frequent fires. Following European settlement, woody-plant cover expanded throughout the Loess Hills so that today, existing prairies occur as remnants surrounded by an oak-dominated woodland. Large-, intermediate-, and small-sized trees were sampled along three adjacent lowland-to-upland belt-transects in western Iowa to document more accurately the dynamics of this woody expansion. Trees were cored or cross-sectioned and dated using standard dendrochronological techniques. Results characterize the pre-1850 woody canopy as consisting of a few widely scattered …
Lichens Of The Ponderosa Pine Forests Of Nebraska., Sara M. Morgan
Lichens Of The Ponderosa Pine Forests Of Nebraska., Sara M. Morgan
Student Work
Nebraska has five main pine forest regions dominated by Pinus ponderosa Laws, with other small naturally forested areas scattered in pockets across the state (Kaul & Rolfsmeier 1993). Three of these main forest areas occur naturally: the Pine Ridge in northwestern Nebraska, the Wildcat Hills south of the city of Scottsbluff, and the Niobrara River Valley in the north-central portion of the state. These three natural coniferous forest communities are similar in having gentle to steep slopes, well-drained sandy soils, and sandstone outcrops (Steinauer & Rolfsmeier 2000). The Pine Ridge area in Dawes, Sheridan, and Sioux counties is the largest …
Effects Of Smooth Brome (Bromus Inermis) Invasion On Tallgrass Prairie., Sarah Jo Mann
Effects Of Smooth Brome (Bromus Inermis) Invasion On Tallgrass Prairie., Sarah Jo Mann
Student Work
Data collected in 1984 and 2000 along a 65-m-long roadside-to-prairie gradient were compared to quantify brome (Bromus inermis) invasion into a native, tallgrass prairie in eastern Nebraska and to assess the effect of this expansion on prairie composition and diversity: Smooth brome expanded 15 meters further into tallgrass prairie during the 16 years of the study while also increasing cover an average of 8%. Overall, species diversity (H’) decreased from 1.04 to 0.95 along the entire toad-prairie gradient during this time although the decrease was significant (P ≤ 0.10) at only three of the five distances from the road that …