Glenn et al. measured plant community composition, at the local and regional scale, following no disturbance, grazing, burning, or grazing and burning of tallgrass prairie pastures in Kansas. Regional plant community heterogeneity was greatest in the burned and undisturbed pastures while local plant community heterogeneity was greatest in the grazed or grazed and burned pastures. The effects of grazing on plant community composition tended to be greater than the effects of burning and the response of grazed and burned pastures tended to be more similar to grazed than burned pastures. Grazing reduced the cover of dominant species, making space available for the establishment of immigrants from the region. These results indicate that differences in plant community composition vary by spatial scale and disturbance type in the tallgrass prairies of Kansas.
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