Fires slow population declines of a long-lived prairie plant through multiple vital rates

• Published in: Oecologia Vol. 196; no. 3; pp. 679 - 691
• Main Authors: Nordstrom, Scott W., Dykstra, Amy B., Wagenius, Stuart
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Science + Business Media 01.07.2021; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: adults; Analysis; Animal behavior; biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Burning; Burning rate; Competitors; data collection; Echinacea angustifolia; Ecology; Endangered species; Extinction (Biology); Fires; Flowering; forbs; Grasslands; Growth rate; herbaceous plants; Hydrology/Water Resources; Inbreeding; Inbreeding depression; Juveniles; Life Sciences; Plant Sciences; Population biology; Population decline; Population dynamics; POPULATION ECOLOGY – ORIGINAL RESEARCH; Population growth; Prairies; Projection model; Recruitment; Recruitment (fisheries); Reproduction; Reproduction (biology); Resource availability; Seedlings; sexual maturity; species recruitment; Statistics; Survival; tallgrass prairies; Fire-stimulated recruitment; Population dynamics; Fire-stimulated flowering; Bayesian modeling; Matrix models

In grasslands worldwide, modified fire cycles are accelerating herbaceous species extinctions. Fire may avert population declines by increasing survival, reproduction, or both. Survival and growth after fires may be promoted by removal of competitors or biomass and increasing resource availability....