Burning has little effect on seed production in a restored prairie

Abstract

Seed rain can be an important indicator of the composition and density of prairie plant populations. Due to the importance of seeds in prairie reconstruction, we studied the effects of burning on the seed rain on twenty plots (ten burned and ten unburned) at Grinnell Colleges Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA). We found that there was no significant effect of burning on either the seed rain or weight of the seeds for a given species. P. virgatum was the only species which showed a significant effect of burning in the seed rain.