Ozark Ground Flora Response to Landscape-Scale Prescribed Fire
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OZARK GROUND FLORA RESPONSE TO LANDSCAPE-SCALE PRESCRIBED FIRE A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia __________________________________________ In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Science __________________________________________ by CALVIN JAMES MAGINEL III Dr. Benjamin O. Knapp, Thesis Supervisor JULY 2015 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled OZARK GROUND FLORA RESPONSE TO LANDSCAPE-SCALE PRESCRIBED FIRE presented by Calvin James Maginel III, a candidate for the degree of Master of Science and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. _____________________________________________________ Benjamin O. Knapp, Ph.D. _____________________________________________________ Candace Galen, Ph.D. _____________________________________________________ John M. Kabrick, Ph.D. _____________________________________________________ Rose-Marie Muzika, Ph.D. DEDICATION I dedicate this, the culmination of my ecological and natural education, to my family. My grandparents and parents were constantly encouraging and supporting me when I would drag them off into the woods to look at some new flower, chase fish in creeks for my fish tanks, or sneak up on woodcocks on a cool spring evening. Even when my interests were dragging me all around the country, you were always encouraging me further into the woods. Last, mention of my family would be lacking without including my appreciation of my childhood experiences in woods and stream exploration with my sister. I love you all so much. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As this project would not have been possible without the Nature Conservancy and the Missouri Department of Conservation and their generosity with their respective data sets, I thank you many times over. The field crews over the years that have braved extraordinary heat, clouds of seed ticks, and many other field hazards deserve gold medals, as well as both organizations for allowing me to join their field crews for multiple field seasons. Additional heartfelt thanks to my readers/commentators Tesa Madsen-McQueen, Claire Ciafre, Lizzie Wright, and Ryan Dibala. The analyses of these data would be meaningless without the statistical wizardry of Tieming Ji, Lori Thombs, and Mark Ellersiek. My botanical mentors mean a lot to me as well, specifically Ralph Thompson of Berea College, Susan Farrington and Liz Olson of MDC, and Justin and Dana Thomas of the Institute of Botanical Training, who guided and formed my botanical interests. I am forever indebted to them. A special thanks to my advisor for always setting down his own project load to listen to my questions, as well as for always being a comfortably approachable gentleman. Rose-Marie, thank you for keeping your faith in me as a graduate student despite my need to run off and build boats. Last, thank you to my entire committee for guiding my research and for the wonderful classes that you offer. The discussions fostered in the learning environment you all so easily create were instrumental in forming my ability to think creatively, question scientifically, and understand ecological concepts. ii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………………………………… ii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................ix ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION AND PROJECT OVERVIEW ...................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 Historical fire in the eastern US ................................................................................... 2 Fire effects on ecosystems .......................................................................................... 4 Mechanisms for herbaceous vegetation response to fire........................................... 8 Quantifying effects of fire on ground flora................................................................ 10 METHODS AND STUDY SITES......................................................................................... 19 Study Area.................................................................................................................. 19 Experimental design and treatments ........................................................................ 20 Sampling and plot layout ........................................................................................... 24 Data preparation........................................................................................................ 25 Community response indices..................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER II: MEASURING PLANT COMMUNITIES IN THE MISSOURI OZARKS: EFFECTS OF SITE AND FIRE MANAGEMENT ON THE UTILITY OF THE FLORISTIC QUALITY INDEX ....... 29 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 29 METHODS ...................................................................................................................... 33 Study Sites.................................................................................................................. 33 Data collection ........................................................................................................... 33 Data analysis .............................................................................................................. 34 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 39 Pearson’s correlation ................................................................................................. 45 Regression analyses ................................................................................................... 47 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 51 Treatment effects on plant community metrics ....................................................... 51 Comparing plant community metrics ........................................................................ 53 Effectiveness of Floristic Quality Index...................................................................... 56 Interpretation of Floristic Quality Index .................................................................... 58 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 61 iii CHAPTER III: PRESCRIBED FIRE EFFECTS ON OZARK GROUND FLORA THROUGH 15 YEARS OF LANDSCAPE-SCALE BURNING ...................................................................................... 62 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 62 METHODS ...................................................................................................................... 65 Data analysis .............................................................................................................. 67 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 72 Analyses of variance .................................................................................................. 72 Multidimensional analyses ........................................................................................ 85 Indicator Species Analyses:........................................................................................ 89 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 92 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 99 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................ 101 LITERATURE CITED: ......................................................................................................... 102 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................... 115 APPENDIX 1. SPECIES FOUND ON STUDY SITES .......................................................... 115 APPENDIX 2. PEARSON’S CORRELATIONS ................................................................... 120 APPENDIX 3. INDICATOR VALUES FOR EACH ELT ........................................................ 127 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Use of Floristic Quality Index in literature (1996 to 2013), derived from a simple count of all literature containing the phrase “Floristic Quality Index”, constrainted by each year within the search engine Google Scholar......................................................... 13 Figure 2. Coefficients of conservatism for the state of Missouri (from Ladd and Thomas 2015). ................................................................................................................................ 14 Figure 3. Relationships between richness and