Encroachment of woody plants into savanna understories changes vertical structure of biomass, reduces herbaceous vegetation and alters savanna fuelbeds. Oak savanna occurs globally and is characterized by old-growth oak (Quercus spp.) stands and herbaceous understory. Previous land-use and management can allow woody vegetation to dominate the understory and degrade these dynamic ecosystems making control a primary objective of fire and grazing management. We used terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to estimate understory biomass and to model vertical structure across four treatments: burned, grazed, burned/grazed and unburned/ungrazed at the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in central Minnesota. We used TLS because, unlike conventional techniques, it can quantify changes in understory vegetation and vertical distribution of biomass rapidly, non-destructively and with fine detail. We discuss understory response to treatments and compare the relative effectiveness of fire, grazing and fire and grazing together in reducing woody understory.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.