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Full-Text Articles in Systems Biology
Spatiotemporal Variation In Vegetation Structure Resulting From Pyric-Herbivory, Sherry Leis, Lloyd W. Morrison, Michael D. Debacker
Spatiotemporal Variation In Vegetation Structure Resulting From Pyric-Herbivory, Sherry Leis, Lloyd W. Morrison, Michael D. Debacker
The Prairie Naturalist
Pyric-herbivory is a process that is widely assumed to create greater habitat heterogeneity in grasslands at the landscape scale than could be achieved by either fire or grazing alone. Yet, few studies have actually quantified the effects of pyric- herbivory on vegetation structure within layers of the grass canopy. Here we quantify the effects of pyric-herbivory on a pasture at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas. We subdivided the pasture into three patches and burned one patch each year in a three-year rotation. We estimated visual obstruction for 25-cm strata and recorded maximum vegetation height. We found that recently burned …