Journal
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Volume 23, Issue 1, Pages 148-158Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1890/12-0198.1
Keywords
Aspidoscelis sexlineata; Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA; longleaf pine; nonmetric multidimensional scaling; Pinus palustris; prescribed fire; squamates; Tantilla coronata
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Funding
- Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) [SI-1696]
- Gopher Tortoise Council's J. Larry Landers Student Research Award
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Measuring the effects of ecological restoration on wildlife assemblages requires study on broad temporal and spatial scales. Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forests are imperiled due to fire suppression and subsequent invasion by hardwood trees. We employed a landscape-scale, randomized-block design to identify how reptile assemblages initially responded to restoration treatments including removal of hardwood trees via mechanical methods (felling and girdling), application of herbicides, or prescribed burning alone. Then, we examined reptile assemblages after all sites experienced more than a decade of prescribed burning at two-to thee-year return intervals. Data were collected concurrently at reference sites chosen to represent target conditions for restoration. Reptile assemblages changed most rapidly in response to prescribed burning, but reptile assemblages at all sites, including reference sites, were generally indistinguishable by the end of the study. Thus, we suggest that prescribed burning in longleaf pine forests over long time periods is an effective strategy for restoring reptile assemblages to the reference condition. Application of herbicides or mechanical removal of hardwood trees provided no apparent benefit to reptiles beyond what was achieved by prescribed fire alone.
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