Keeping grasslands grassy in a changing climate
Bois, S, C Neill, M Whittemore, L Champlin, K Beattie, R Hopping, J Karberg et al. Challenges, successes, and recommendations for management of coastal sandplain grasslands as regional biodiversity hotspots in the northeastern United States. Restoration Ecology (2023): e13928. PDF.
Summary
Sandplain grasslands in the coastal northeastern US are regional biodiversity hotspots. These habitats are under multiple pressures and increasingly rare due to natural succession, development, fragmentation, non-native invasive species and, increasingly, various aspects of climate change. The authors use a literature review of published and gray literature as well as practitioner interviews to document successful sandplain grassland management methods as well as highlighting research needs and future threats. Climate change influences management methods available to practitioners, for example, by reducing the available window of opportunity for prescribed fire. Climate change also promotes new and more invasive species, another primary threat to known management methods. Coordination on adaptive management for coastal sandplain grasslands will continue with the Sandplain Grassland Network.
Take home points
Despite decades of knowledge in managing grassland habitats, new threats outpace the learning curve for how to deal with them.
Review of literature and interviews with sandplain grassland managers indicated that most current grassland management does not prevent increased woody cover, losses of rare species, or expansion of non-native and invasive species.
Non-native species will likely respond favorably to accelerating climate change, exacerbating the ecological and economic problems that they cause.
Networks that share management examples can improve management outcomes in sandplain grasslands and other biodiversity hotspots; networks also can highlight research and management needs.
Management implications
Climate change will force grassland managers to consider species’ range shifts, probabilities of severe wet and dry periods, and potential constraints on future use of prescribed fire.
Managers recommended increasing use of growing season fire, and combinations of fire with mowing and herbicides in cases where use of fire is constrained, to sustain grassland structure and biodiversity.
Managers and practitioners need to communicate about new non-native and invasive species and be more responsive to these threats. The Sandplain Grassland Network plans to help with communicating these threats.
Keywords
Climate change; sandplain grasslands; Range Expansion; invasive species; adaptive management; Review