Relationship between Aboveground Biomass and Percent Cover of Ground Vegetation in Canadian Boreal Plain Riparian Forests

MacDonald, Rebecca L.; Burke, Janice M.; Chen, Han Y. H.; Prepas, E. E.

doi:10.5849/forsci.10-129

Cited by 26 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Although we observed numerous plant cover responses to N addition, and percent cover is typically a good predictor of variation in biomass (MacDonald & Burke ), there were no significant N effects on aboveground biomass; total aboveground biomass increased in response to both levels of N addition, but the variability among samples was very high. The size of our biomass sampling quadrats (0.25 × 0.25 m) was consistent with that used elsewhere for prairie communities (Seastedt et al ; Tilman & Wedin ; Biondini ; Dickson & Busby ; Socher et al ; Seabloom et al ), and was selected to minimize disturbance of the long‐term plots.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Tallgrass prairie restoration: implications of increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition when site preparation minimizes adventive grasses

McPhee

Borden

Bowles

et al. 2014

Restoration Ecology

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Site preparation designed to exhaust the soil seedbank of adventive species can improve the success of tallgrass prairie restoration. Despite these efforts, increased rates of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition over the next century could potentially promote the growth of nitrophilic, adventive species in tallgrass restoration projects. We used a field experiment to examine how N addition affected species composition and plant productivity over the first 3 years of a tallgrass prairie restoration that was preceded by the planting of glyphosate-resistant crops and multiple applications of glyphosate to exhaust the pre-existing seedbank. We predicted that N addition would increase the percent cover of adventive plant species not included in the original seeding. Contrary to our prediction, only the cover of native species increased with N addition; native non-leguminous forbs increased substantially, with Conyza canadensis (a weedy native species not part of the restoration seed mix) exploiting the combination of high N and bare ground in the first year, and non-leguminous forbs (in particular Monarda fistulosa) and native C 3 grasses, all of which were seeded, increasing with N addition by the third year. Native legumes was the only functional group that exhibited lower cover in N addition plots than in control plots. There was no significant response by native C 4 grasses to N addition, and adventive grasses remained mostly absent from the plots. Overall, our results suggest that site pre-treatment with herbicide may continue to be effective in minimizing adventive grasses in restored tallgrass prairie, despite future increases in atmospheric N deposition.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Tallgrass prairie restoration: implications of increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition when site preparation minimizes adventive grasses

McPhee

Borden

Bowles

et al. 2014

Restoration Ecology

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“…; Quint & Dech ; MacDonald et al. ). Stratum height was important to differentiate between trees and shrubs with fundamentally different cover–stem density relationships (Figs and ), and its inclusion in our models allowed us to predict stem counts of woody plants in multiple strata simultaneously (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating plant abundances from crown cover and forest structure data reveals size‐dependent patterns of rarity in subtropical Australia

McCarthy

Mokany

Dwyer

2016

Applied Vegetation Science

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Abbreviations GAMM = Generalised additive mixed effects model; GDM = Generalised dissimilarity modelling; SEQ = Southeast Queensland. AbstractAims: Accurate field quantification of stem counts is time consuming and laborious, especially in ecosystems containing many small individuals where counts are immense. There are many large, long-term data sets worldwide that include various measures of woody plant abundance, such as crown cover, that are faster and easier to measure than true counts of individuals. Quantifying the number of individuals allows in-depth research into various topics including functional ecology, carbon accounting, conservation and metabolic theory. Here we test the accuracy of predicting the abundance of individual woody plants from cover and forest structure measures, and explore the implications of refined abundance measures for understanding the rarity of woody plant species across southeast Queensland.Location: Southeast Queensland (SEQ), Australia.Methods: To supplement an existing data set of 1251 sites with measured crown covers for woody plants in various strata, we sampled stem counts in an additional 30 sites, forming a calibration data set. We ensured that these 30 sites covered the environmental variation in the study area. Generalized additive mixed effects models were used to predict stem counts for all woody plants in the original data set from their crown cover and forest structure values and a site-level variable accounting for water balance. We used these refined abundance data to investigate relationships between local and regional abundance for different size classes.Results: Stem densities increased with crown cover in a non-linear fashion; slowing once crown cover reached ca. 5% for shrubs and ca. 50% for trees, depending on their maximum potential height. Using the predicted stem count data, we found that shrubs were more locally abundant than trees, but less regionally abundant. Larger trees (>20 m maximum potential height) showed a negative relationship between local and regional abundance; there was no significant relationship between other size classes.Conclusions: Our study demonstrates how crown cover can be converted to stem counts using a calibration data set and flexible mixed-effects models. This enables further ecological analysis at a fraction of the investment required to resurvey. Analyses of abundances revealed that tree species are less locally abundant than smaller woody species, likely due to space filling constraints, but more regionally abundant.

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“…Heightbiomass relationships (used in conjunction with cover) would be helpful, but known relationships are very few and far between for wetland plants. A scant few do exist and should be used (e.g., MacDonald et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

HGM: a call for model validation

Cole

2015

Wetlands Ecol Manage

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The hydrogeomorphic (HGM) approach to wetland functional assessment has been in place for more than 20 years, yet most models developed to date have not been validated. Although HGM models are typically calibrated to a data set, we lack true validation efforts, especially as wetland scientists and managers continue to assert that measuring structure equates to an assessment of function. This paper is a call for a renewed effort at HGM validation in order to fully assure that we know when structure is measured we are also measuring function.

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Relationship between Aboveground Biomass and Percent Cover of Ground Vegetation in Canadian Boreal Plain Riparian Forests

Cited by 26 publications

References 34 publications

Tallgrass prairie restoration: implications of increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition when site preparation minimizes adventive grasses

Tallgrass prairie restoration: implications of increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition when site preparation minimizes adventive grasses

Estimating plant abundances from crown cover and forest structure data reveals size‐dependent patterns of rarity in subtropical Australia

HGM: a call for model validation

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