Abstract
Six treatments of eastern Kansas tallgrass prairie – native prairie, hayed, mowed, grazed, burned and untreated – were studied to examine the biophysical effects of land management practices on grasslands. On each treatment, measurements of plant biomass, leaf area index, plant cover, leaf moisture and soil moisture were collected. In addition, measurements were taken of the Normalized Difference VegetationIndex (NDVI), which is derived from spectral reflectance measurements. Measurements were taken in mid-June, mid-July and late summer of 1990 and 1991. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine whether there were differences in the set of variables among treatments and years. Follow-up tests included univariate t-tests to determine whichvariables were contributing to any significant difference. Results showed a significant difference (p < 0.0005) among treatments in the composite of parameters during each of the months sampled. In most treatment types, there was asignificant difference between years within each month. The univariate tests showed, however, that only some variables, primarily soil moisture, were contributing to this difference. We conclude that biomass and % plant cover show the best potential to serve as long-term indicators of grassland condition as they generally were sensitive to effects ofdifferent land management practices but not to yearlychange in weather conditions. NDVI was insensitive to precipitation differences between years in July for most treatments, but was not in the native prairie. Choice of sampling time is important for these parameters to serve effectively as indicators.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrams, A., Knapp A. and Hulbert, L.: 1986, ‘A ten-year record of aboveground biomass in a Kansas tallgrass prairie: Effects of fire and topographic position’, Am. J. Bot. 73(10), 1509–1515.
Allen, R., Wilson, J. and Mason, C.: 1995, ‘Vegetation change following exclusion of grazing animals in depleted grassland, central Otago’, N.Z. J. Veg. Sci. 6, 615–626.
Asrar, G., Weiser, R., Johnson, D., Kanemasu, E. and Killeen, J.: 1986, ‘Distinguishing among tallgrass prairie cover types from measurements of multispectral reflectance’, Rem. Sens. Environ. 19, 159–169.
Asrar, G., Harris, T. and Lapitan, R.: 1988, ‘Radiative surface temperatures of the burned and unburned areas in a tallgrass prairie’, Rem. Sens. Environ. 24, 447–457.
Barker, J., Herlocker, D. and Young, S.: 1989, ‘Vegetal dynamics along a grazing gradient within the coastal grassland of central Somalia’, Afr. J. Ecol. 27, 283–289.
Belsky, A.: 1992, ‘Effects of grazing, competition, disturbance and fire on species composition and diversity in grassland communities’, J. Veg. Sci. 3, 187–200.
Benning, T. and Seastedt, T.: 1997, ‘Effects of fire, mowing, and nitrogen addition on root characteristics in tallgrass prairie’, J. Veg. Sci. 8, 541–546.
Bentivenga, S. and Hetrick, B.: 1992, ‘The effect of prairie management practices on mycorrhizal symbiosis’, Mycologia 84(4), 522–527.
Bentivenga, S. and Hetrick, B.: 1991, ‘Relationships between mycorrhizal activity, burning, and plant productivity in tallgrass prairie’, Can. J. Bot. 69, 2597–2602.
Brady, W., Stromberg, M, Aldon, E., Bonham, C. and Henry, S.: 1988, ‘Response of a semi-desert grassland to 16 yr of rest from grazing’, J. Range Manage. 42, 284–288.
Briggs, J. and Knapp, A.: 1995, Interannual variability in primary production in tallgrass prairie: climate, soil moisture, topographic position and fire as determinants of aboveground biomass. Am. J. Bot. 82(8), 1024–1030.
Briggs, J., Fahnestock, J., Fisher, L. and Knapp, A.: 1994, in R. Wickett, P. Lewis, A. Woodliffe and P. Pratt (eds), Aboveground Biomass in Tallgrass Prairie: Effects of Time Since Fire, Proceedings of the 13th North American Prairie Conference, Windsor Dept. of Parks and Recreation, ON, pp. 165–170.
Collins, S.: 1992, ‘Fire frequency and community heterogeneity in tallgrass prairie vegetation’, Ecology 73, 2001–2006.
Collins, S. and Gibson, D.: 1992, ‘Effects of Fire on Community Structure in Tallgrass and Mixed-Grass Prairie’, in S. Collins and L. Wallace (eds), Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies, U. Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 81–98.
Cridland, S., Burnside, D. and Smith, R.: 1995, ‘The NDVI – Use in Rangeland Management’, in N. West (ed.), Rangelands in a Sustainable Biosphere, Soc. for Range Management, Denver, CO, pp. 105–106.
Davis, G.: 1993, ‘Design elements of monitoring programs: the necessary ingredients for success’, Environ. Monitor. Assess. 26, 99–105.
DeLucia, E., Heckathorm, S. and Day, T.: 1992, ‘Effects of soil temperature on growth, biomass allocation and resource acquisition of Andropogon gerardii. New Phytol. 120, 543–549.
Dormaar, J. and Willms, W.: 1998, ‘Effect of forty-four years of grazing on fescue grassland soils’, J. Range Manage. 51, p122–126.
Dunham, J. and Price, K.: 1996, ‘Comparison of nadir and off-nadir multispectral response patterns for six tallgrass prairie treatments in Eastern Kansas’, Photogramm. Engineer. Rem. Sens. 62(8), 961–967.
Dyer, M., Turner, C. and Seastedt, T.: 1991, ‘Mowing and fertilization effects on productivity and spectral reflectance in B. inermis plots’, Ecol. Appl. 1, 443–452.
Dyer, M., Turner, C. and Seastedt, T.: 1991, ‘Remote Sensing measurements of production processes in grazing lands: the need for new methodologies’, Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 34, 495–505.
Fitch, H. and Hall, E.: 1978, ‘A 20 yr record of succession on reseeded fields of tallgrass prairie on the Rockefeller Experimental Tract’, Special Publ. No. 4. U. Kansas Museum of Natural History, U. Kansas Printing Service, Lawrence.
Fitch, H. and Kettle, W.: 1988. ‘Kansas Ecological Reserves’, Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci. 91, 30–36.
Gibson, D., Seastedt, T. and Briggs, J.: 1993, ‘Management practices in tallgrass prairie: large-and small-scale experimental effects on species composition’, J. Appl. Ecol. 30, 247–255.
Gilliam. F., Seastedt, T. and Knapp, A.: 1987, ‘Canopy rainfall interception and throughfall in burned and unburned tallgrass prairie’, SW Nat. 32, 267–271.
Glenn-Lewin, D., Johnson, L., Jurik, T., Akey, A., Leoschke, M. and Rosberg, T.: 1990, ‘Fire in Central North American Grasslands: Vegetative Reproduction, Seed Germination, and Seedling Establishment’, in S. Collins and L. Wallace (eds), Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies, U. Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 28–45.
Goodin, D. and Henebry, G.: 1997, ‘A technique for monitoring ecological disturbance in tallgrass prairie using seasonal NDVI trajectories and a discriminant function mixture model’, Rem. Sens. Environ. 61, 270–278.
Greenwood, P. and McNamara, R.: 1992, ‘An analysis of the physical condition of two intensively grazed Southland soils’, Proc. N.Z 0. Grassland Assoc. 54, 71–75.
Griffith, J.: 1998, ‘Connecting ecological monitoring and ecological indicators: A review of the literature’, J. Environ. Syst. 26(4), 325–363.
Guthery, F.: 1987, ‘Guidelines for preparing and reviewing manuscripts based on field experiments with unreplicated treatments’, Wildl. Soc. Bull. 15, 306.
Hassink, J.: 1994, ‘Effects of soil texture and grassland management on soil organic carbon and nitrogen and rates of carbon and nitrogen mineralization’, Soil Biol. Biochem. 26, 1221–1231.
Henebry, G. and Su, H.: 1995, Observing Spatial Structure in the Flint Hills using AVHRR Biweekly Composites of Maximum NDVI, in D. Hartnett (ed.), Proceedings of the 14th North American Prairie Conference, pp. 143–151.
Hulbert, C.: 1988, ‘Causes of fire effects in tallgrass prairie’, Ecology 69, 46–58.
Jensen, J.: 1996, Introductory Digital Image Processing, Prentice Hall, NJ, 316 pp.
Kindscher, K. and Tieszen, L.: 1998, ‘Floristic and soil organic matter changes after fire and thirty-five years of native tallgrass prairie restoration’, Restor. Ecol. 6(2), 181–196.
Kindscher, K. and Wells, P.: 1995, ‘Prairie plant guilds: An ordination of prairie plant species based on ecological and morphological traits’, Vegetatio 117, 29–50.
Knapp, A., Briggs, J., Hartnett, D. and Collins, S. (eds): 1998a, Grassland Dynamics: Long-Term Ecological Research in Tallgrass Prairie, Oxford University Press, New York.
Knapp, A., Briggs, J., Blair, J. and Turner, C.: 1998b, ‘Patterns and Controls of Aboveground Net Primary Production in Tallgrass Prairie’, in A. Knapp, J. Briggs, D. Hartnett and S. Collins (eds), Grassland Dynamics: Long-Term Ecological Research in Tallgrass Prairie, Oxford University Press, NY, pp. 193–221.
Knapp, A.: 1984, ‘Post-burn differences in solar radiation, leaf temperature and water stress influencing production in a lowland tallgrass prairie’, Am. J. Bot. 71(2), 220–227.
Lauenroth, W., Sala, O. and Kirchner, T.: 1994, ‘The importance of soil water in the recruitment of B. gracilis in the shortgrass steppe’, Ecol. Appl. 4, 741–756.
Lavado, R. and Alconada, M.: 1994, ‘Soil properties behavior on grazed and ungrazed plots of a grassland sodic soil’, Soil Technol. 7, 75–81.
Messer, J., Linthurst, R. and Overton, W.: 1991, ‘An EPA program for monitoring ecological status and trends’, Environ. Monitor. Assess. 17(1), 67–78.
Minor, T., Lancaster, R., Wade, T., Wickham, J., Whitford, W. and Jones, K.: 1999, ‘Evaluating change in rangeland condition using multitemporal AVHRR data and geographic information system analysis’, Environ. Monitor. Assess. 59, 211–223.
Naeth, M. and Chanasyk, D.: 1995, ‘Grazing effects on soil water in Alberta foothills fescue grasslands’, J. Range Manage. 48, 528–534.
Naeth, M., Rothwell, R., Chanasyk, D. and Bailey, A.: 1990, ‘Grazing impacts on infiltration in mixed prairie and fescue grassland ecosystems of Alberta’, Can. J. Soil Sci. 70, 543–605.
Naeth, M., Bailey, A., Pluth, D., Chanasyk, D. and Hardin, R.: 1991a, ‘Grazing impacts on litter and soil organic matter in mixed prairie-fescue grassland ecosystems of Alberta’, J. Range Manage. 44(1), 7–12.
Naeth, M., Chanasyk, D., Rothwell, R. and Bailey, A.: 1991b, ‘Grazing impacts on soil water in mixed prairie and fescue grassland ecosystems of Alberta’, Can. J. Soil Sci. 71, 313–325.
NOAA Climatological Records: 1958–1991, Climatological data, Kansas. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Monthly precipitation. Lawrence, KS.
Noy-Meir, I.: 1993, ‘Compensating growth of grazed plants and its relevance to the use of rangelands’, Ecol. Appl. 3, 32–34.
Ojima, D., Parton, W., Schimel, D. and Owensby, C.: 1990, ‘Simulated Impacts of Annual Burning on Prairie Ecosystems’, in S. Collins and L. Wallace (eds), Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies, U. Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 118–132.
Peterson, N.: 1983, The Effects of Fire, Litter and Ash on Flowering in A. gerardii, in R. Brewer (ed.), Proceedings of the 8th North American Prairie Conference. Dept. of Biology, Western Michigan U., Kalamazoo, pp. 21–24.
Price, K. P., Varner, V., Martinko, E. and Rundquist, D.: 1992, Analysis of Multitemporal Narrow-Band Spectroradiometer Measurements from Six Prairie Treatments in Kansas, in Proceedings, ASPRS/ACSM ‘92 Annual Convention and Exposition, Albuquerque, NM, February 29–March 5, pp. 372–385.
Price, K. P., Varner, V., Martinko, E., Rundquist, D. and Peake, J.: 1993, Influence of land management and weather on plant biophysical and hyper-spectral response patterns of tallgrass prairie in northeastern Kansas, in Proceedings of the PECORA 12 Conference, Sioux Falls, SD.
Price, K. P., Guo, X. and Stiles, J.: 1999, Discriminant analysis of Landsat TM Multi-temporal data for six grassland management practices in eastern Kansas, in Proceedings of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Annual Conference, May 17–21, Portland, OR, pp. 498–508
Risser, P.: 1988, ‘Diversity In and Among Grasslands’, in E. O. Wilson (ed.), Biodiversity, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, pp. 176–180.
Roderick, M., Smith, R. and Lodwick, G.: 1995, ‘Annual Growth Dynamics over Continental Scale Regions Using Satellite Derived Vegetation Indices’, in N. West (ed.), Rangelands in a Sustainable Biosphere, Society for Range Management, Denver, CO, pp. 477–478.
Rouse, J., Haas, R., Schell, J. and Deering, D.: 1973, Monitoring Vegetation Systems in the Great Plains with ERTS, in Proceedings of the 3rd ERTS Symposium, Vol. 1, pp. 48–62.
Seastedt, T.: 1985, ‘Canopy interception of nitrogen in bulk precipitation by annually burned and unburned tallgrass prairie’, Oecologia 66, 88–92.
Seastedt, T. and Ramundo, R.: 1990, ‘The Influence of Fire on Belowground Processes of Tallgrass Prairie’, in S. Collins and L. Wallace (eds), Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies, U. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 99–117.
Sharma, S.: 1996, Applied Multivariate Techniques, John Wiley & Sons, NY.
Sheffner, E. and Stoney, W.: 1999, ‘Are remote sensing Abirds’ finally flying?’, GeoWorld 12, 40–42.
Smith, R. and Rushton, S.: 1994, ‘The effects of grazing management on the vegetation of mesotrophic grassland of Northern England’, J. Appl. Ecol. 31, 13–24.
Stevens, J.: 1996, Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences, Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 629 pp.
Svejcar, T.: 1990, ‘Response of Andropogon gerardii to Fire in Tallgrass Prairie’, in S. Collins and L. Wallace (eds), Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies, U. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pp. 19–27.
Todd, T.: 1996, ‘Effects of management practices on nematode community structure in tallgrass prairie’, Appl. Soil Ecol. 3, 235–246.
Todd, T., James, S. and Seastedt, T.: 1992, ‘Soil invertebrate and plant responses to mowing and carbofuran application in a North American tallgrass prairie’, Plant and Soil 144, 117–124.
Turner, C., Blair, J., Schartz, R. and Neel, J.: 1997, ‘Soil nitrogen and plant responses to fire, topography, and supplemental nitrogen in tallgrass prairie’, Ecology 78(6), 1832–1832.
Weiser, R., Asrar, G., Miller, G. and Kanemasu, E.: 1986, ‘Assessing grassland biophysical characteristics from spectral measurements’, Rem. Sens. Environ. 20, 141–152.
Wessman, C., Bateson, C. and Benning, T.: 1997, ‘Detecting fire and grazing patterns in tallgrass prairie using spectral mixture analysis’, Ecol. Appl. 7(2), 493–511.
Wessman, C., Schimel, D., Archer, S., Bateson, C., Braswell, B., Ojima, D. and Parton, W.: 1995, ‘New Technologies for Remote Sensing of Ecosystem Change in Rangelands’, in N. West (ed.), Rangelands in a Sustainable Biosphere, Society for Range Management, Denver, CO, pp. 139–142.
Willson, G. and Stubbendieck, J.: 1995, Soil Moisture and Temperature Difference Between Burned and Unburned Smooth Brome-and Big Bluestem-Dominated Sites, in Proceedings of the 14th Annual North American Prairie Conference, pp. 79–83.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Griffith, J.A., Price, K.P. & Martinko, E.A. A Multivariate Analysis of Biophysical Parameters of Tallgrass Prairie Among Land Management Practices and Years. Environ Monit Assess 68, 249–271 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010703725172
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010703725172