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Community dynamics under environmental extremes: coastal plain wet prairie in a natural state and under restoration

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Abstract

Ecological restoration is increasingly employed to restore degraded or destroyed ecosystems and evaluation of restoration success requires that natural community dynamics be understood. Wet prairies in the Southeast US have diverse plant communities subject to disturbances including fire, drought, flooding, tropical storms, and freezes. This habitat covers a fraction of its former range and reversing that trend requires ecological restoration; but, long-term data on the dynamics of this system are rare. We analyzed a 12-year plant community composition dataset from a fire-maintained Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain wet prairie to characterize plant community dynamics and identify indicator species. The site was compared to a nearby wetland mitigation project attempting to restore a wet prairie that had been converted into slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantation. The reference site had higher species richness, was dominated by Aristida spp., and was stable despite extreme climatic conditions. The restoration site transitioned from dense pine and understory canopy to an open, grassy community, but did not follow a trajectory toward the reference state. Restoration efforts were impeded by woody debris, accumulated duff, soil disturbance from logging, and storm surge from hurricanes. Continued application of prescribed fire and decomposition activity should remove the organic matter and promote establishment of wet prairie species, but on a longer time scale than expected. Although the pine plantation did not return to a typical wet prairie during the study period, the record of community dynamics of the reference wet prairie provides information on the resilience of the habitat type under prescribed fire management, and serves as a reference for restoration efforts and management of this threatened habitat.

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Data available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the Northwest Florida Water Management District and was assisted by Bill Cleckley and Steve Brown of that agency. We thank Thomas E. Ostertag, Christina Ortland, Shannah Dobar, Allyson Perz, Steven Perz, James Burkhalter, and Brandy Singleton for conducting and overseeing field work.

Funding

This project was funded by the Northwest Florida Water Management District.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL, 32514, USA

    Cinnamon M. Dixon, Kerry E. Flaherty-Walia & Richard A. Snyder

  2. Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL, 32312, USA

    Cinnamon M. Dixon

  3. Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    Kerry E. Flaherty-Walia

  4. Virginia Institute of Marine Science Eastern Shore Laboratory, Wachapreague, VA, 23480, USA

    Richard A. Snyder

Authors
  1. Cinnamon M. Dixon
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  2. Kerry E. Flaherty-Walia
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  3. Richard A. Snyder
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Contributions

RAS was responsible for conceptualization, methodology, and obtaining funding. CMD conducted all analyses and prepared the original draft. All authors collected data, were involved in editing the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard A. Snyder.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by Christopher Anderson.

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Dixon, C.M., Flaherty-Walia, K.E. & Snyder, R.A. Community dynamics under environmental extremes: coastal plain wet prairie in a natural state and under restoration. Plant Ecol 222, 1251–1262 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-021-01175-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-021-01175-9

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