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Seeding the prairie (was goldenrod)

Steve,

Thanks for the references. Too bad I let my R&MN lapse, it was so
expensive. It's worth checking now to see if the university has subscribed
yet.

Anyway... I think that the complicating any successional theory is species
availability. Propagules have to be available at the same time that space
is available and the space has to be stable enough for the new propagule to
develop.

If I visualize the "Ur-prairie", I imagine that it must have had little
diversity for eons. Slowly, new species arrived -- brought in by wind,
water and animal -- and were available to be able to take advantage of open
soil. The process must have been incredibly slow. A new species per
thousand years? Who knows?

The experiments of taday could never replicate slow colonization of the
past. From what I gather, they take place in or near areas already rich in
prairie species with propagules longing to spread. In other cases people
bring in a complete species cocktail all at once. That's what anybody has
done who has ever seeded in a "prairie mixture."

I doubt that these experimental restorations in any way replicate the
original development. On the one hand, all the species (whatever that
means) are immediately available to colonize the open ground. That should
speed things up. On the other, the conditions available are uniform for all
species. That would keep out those species for which the instant conditions
are hostile. So there has to be a series of conditions --wet, dry, cold,
hot, etc. -- concurrent with open spaces in order for each species to
establish itself. From what I've read -- and I admit to not having kept up
with my reading the past 5 years or so -- the experiments are just too
short. The longest running experiment that I recall is about 50 years,
which is really no time at all. Planting a prairie is like planting a tree:
it's for the future.

Anyway, I guess I should get cracking and read up on some of the work of
the past 5 years or so.

Debby

>The citations dealing with interseeding in established stands are:
>Packard, S. 1994. Successional restoration: thinking like a prairie.
>	Restoration and Management Notes 12(1):32-39.
>Packard, S. 1997. Interseeding. pages 163-191 in S. Packard and C.
>	Mutel (eds.) The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook: for Prairies,
>	Savannas, and Woodlands. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
>I think Bill Whitney may have discussed interseeding in Platte Valley
>restorations in Nebraska in one of the following articles:
>Whitney, B. 1997. A Platte River country restoration: Part I. Getting
>	started. Restoration and Management Notes 15(1):6-13.
>Whitney, B. 1997. Platte River country restoration: Part II. At work on
>	the plains. Restoration and Management Notes 15(2):126-137.
>
snip


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