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Succession in grasslands: Thirty-two years of change in a central Oklahoma tallgrass prairie

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Abstract

Old field succession in Oklahoma has been reported to involve four stages of development: pioncer weeds, annual grass, bunch grass, and mature prairie. This sequence has been the basis for a number of analyses of grassland structure and function, but has never been documented on a single site. We used multivariate techniques to study succession on three permanent plots with different initial plowing treatments in a central Oklahoma grassland. Only two of the four hypothesized stages could be identified: pioneer weeds and mature prairie. The intervening vegetation development was heterogeneous and unpredictable. Convergence was evident in only a general manner in that all plots are currently being invaded by shrubs and some tree species. Thus, succession on these plots has advanced beyond prairie to shrub-grassland and we predict that upland forest trees may eventually dominate the site. Succession from pioneer weeds beyond prairie to shrub-grassland has been very rapid. Fire suppression may have contributed to these rapid vegetation changes. Finally, no trends in diversity, evenness, or total number of species were evident during succession.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, 73019, Norman, OK, USA

    S. L. Collins & D. E. Adams

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  1. S. L. Collins
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  2. D. E. Adams
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Additional information

Nomenclature follows Gould(1975) for grasses and Waterfall (1972) for other plants.

The authors would like to thank Dr. Elroy Rice for providing data from earlier samples. We thank Susan Barber for help with the 1981–1982 samples. Roger Anderson, Karen Dooley, Robert Peet, Elroy Rice. Paul Risser, Linda Wallace, and two anonymous reviewers provided many helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

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Collins, S.L., Adams, D.E. Succession in grasslands: Thirty-two years of change in a central Oklahoma tallgrass prairie. Vegetatio 51, 181–190 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00129437

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