PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #9: Success Criteria and Monitoring Restoration.
Monday, August 5. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Vegetation dynamics of a tallgrass prairie restoration after 15 years.

Poling, Tara^*,1, Banker, Michele¹, Geiger, Donald^1,2, Jablonski, Leanne¹, ¹ Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC), Dayton, OH² University of Dayton, Dayton, OH

ABSTRACT- Vegetation establishment was assessed 15 years following initiation of restoration of Eastern tallgrass prairie at Mount St. John in Greene Co. near Dayton, Ohio to provide management guidance. The 7-ha. semi-urban site, a restored sand and gravel borrow pit dug for highway construction, was uniformly hydro-seeded with eight native grasses in 1986. Two permanent transects established in 1996 incorporate a gradient in elevation and edaphic factors (average soil pH is 7.9, organic matter is 3.6%). In September 2001, species were identified and stem density and cover determined for 36 1.0 m² quadrats. Seventy-two% of the prairie has grass and forb cover, mosses occupy 26.2% basal cover and weeds are uncommon. Thirty-six of the 66 upland species in the entire restored prairie were present in quadrats, with species diversity of 6.4 ± 0.3/m². Five of the introduced native grasses persist. Rank in Importance Value (IV) has not changed since 1996, with Schizachyrium scoparium dominant. Bouteloua curtipendula, the grass with the highest Coefficient of Conservatism (COC), increased in IV from 0.36 to 0.47. The IV for Panicum virgatum, the grass with the lowest COC, has decreased from 0.74 to 0.66. Standing biomass has increased by 66% since 1995 to 0.182 ± 0.010 kg/m². The increases in vegetation cover, standing biomass, forb species richness and IV of prairie grasses suggest the restoration is progressing toward mature prairie.

KEY WORDS: prairie restoration, succession, monitoring, tallgrass prairie