PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #27: Fire Ecology.
Presiding: C. Allen
Tuesday, August 6. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Graham Meeting Room, TCC.
Effects of season of fire on responses by small mammals to post-fire conditions.
Kaufman, Glennis*,1, Kaufman, Donald1, McMillan, Brock2, Matlack, Raymond3, Rehmeier, Ryan1, Reed, Aaron1, 1 Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS2 University of Minnesota-Mankato, Mankato, MN3 College of Wooster, Wooster, OH
ABSTRACT- Fire is important in maintaining prairie ecosystems in central North America. Natural fires likely occurred in any month of the year in grasslands before fire suppression by European settlers. Previous experiments show that species of small mammals either respond positively, negatively, or neutrally to spring fires in tallgrass prairie ecosystems. Our goal was to determine if species-specific patterns would remain when the prairie was burned in other seasons. To test this, a new series of annual burns were begun on the Konza Prairie Biological Station in autumn 1993, where fire occurred in spring, summer, fall, or winter. Following the first year of fires, we established permanent trap lines in each seasonal treatment, which included 2 in spring, 2 in summer, 2 in autumn, and 2 in winter. Subsequently, small mammals were trapped simultaneously on these trap lines in spring and in autumn beginning in autumn 1994. During the past 8 years, a total of 4 to 6 species of small mammals were captured across the seasonal types in spring trapping periods. In contrast, a range of 8 to 9 species of small mammals was captured in autumn trapping periods. The deer mouse was the predominant small mammal across all seasonal burn types and varied in relative abundance (individuals per trap line) from 4.1 to 6.3 and from 3.0 to 8.4 in autumn and spring, respectively, across the seasonal treatments.
KEY WORDS: seasonal fire, tallgrass prairie, small mammals, deer mouse