Development of vegetation over nine years in a planted field station prairie

Abstract

We studied the development of vegetation in a small area at the UWM Field Station planted with prairie species in 1986. The species and quantities of seed and seedlings planted in 1986 were recorded. We sampled the vegetation using permanent quadrats in 1988and 1994. Native prairie species were already well established in the area in 1988. There was, however, a dramatic change in the composition of the vegetation between 1988 and 1994. The number of native prairie species increased slightly and the number of non-prairie species decreased substantially, so that in 1988, 51% of species were native prairie plants and this figure increased to 62% in 1994. The sum of the mean cover of all plant species almost tripled between 1988 and 1994, primarily due to a large increase in cover of grass species. The relative dominance of several species changed markedly over the six years between samples.