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Oak savanna restoration in central Iowa: Assessing indicators of forest health for ecological monitoring (PROJECT NC-F-04-02)

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Savanna ecosystems were once a dominant feature of the Midwestern Corn Belt Plains ecoregion, occurring within the dynamic boundary between prairies to the west and forests to the east, and maintained in the landscape by complex interactions between fire, climate, topography, and human activities (Anderson 1998). Characterized by their continuous understory layer and widely scattered overstory trees, primarily oak species, Midwestern savannas are today extremely rare, largely converted to agricultural or transitioned to woodlands following changes to disturbance regime. Today, less than 1 percent of the original extent of savanna vegetation remains (Nuzzo 1986), mostly in a highly degraded state due to fire suppression, overgrazing, habitat fragmentation, and subsequent woody encroachment and invasion by non-savanna understory and overstory species (Anderson 1998, Gobster and others 2000).

Parent Publication

Citation

Asbjornsen, Heidi; Brudvig, Lars. 2013. Oak savanna restoration in central Iowa: Assessing indicators of forest health for ecological monitoring (PROJECT NC-F-04-02). In: Potter, Kevin M.; Conkling, Barbara L., eds. 2013. Forest health monitoring: national status, trends, and analysis 2011. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-GTR-185. Asheville, NC: USDA-Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 125-132.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/45451