Two management regimes in the tallgrass prairie : effects on plants and small mammals.

Abstract

In summer and late fall 1997 and 1998 I compared plant and small mammal communities in tallgrass prairie subject to two different management regimes: annual summer haying and spring burning with moderate grazing. The eight sites were located 11 km west of Mayetta, Kansas. On each site I determined the number and cover of plant species present. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare between the regimes for species richness, species diversity, cover, and for each guild, species richness and cover. Four sites were dropped for 1998; consequently analysis was done for 1997 and the two years pooled. Significantly more species were found on the hayed sites in 1997 and for pooled years (1997: P=O.04; pooled P=O.01), as were non-native species (1997 richness: P=O.04; pooled richness: P=O.004, and cover: P=O.03). In 1997, two guilds had significantly greater values on the hayed sites: early spring ephemeral forbs (richness: P=O.02; cover: P=O.02) and spring forbs (richness: P=O.OS), as did three guilds in the pooled analysis: early spring ephemeral forbs (cover: P=O.01), spring forbs (richness: P=O.03), and summer/fall forbs (richness: P=O.02). Small mammal communities were live-trapped in late fall. Six sites were II trapped in 1997 and four in 1998. Comparisons were made with ANOVA for species richness, species diversity, and abundance for certain species. In 800 trap nights 101 individuals of eight species were captured. The deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) was most abundant as 51% of all captures. Significantly more individuals of all species (P=0.01) were found on the burned, grazed sites in 1997, as was the deer mouse (P=0.02). Regression analysis showed mean height of the sampled vegetation on the sites explained 44% (P=0.07) and 86% (P=0.08) of the variation in numbers of individuals of small mammals captured in 1997 and 1998, respectively.