This is the reference or diagnostic plant community for this site. In reference conditions, this site was dominated by prairie grass species. Dominant species include big bluestem, little bluestem, and Indiangrass. Fire was the main disturbance agent that maintained this site and occurred quite frequently, often with a return interval of 5 years or shorter. The removal of fire from the system and/or lack of woody species management would move this site toward state 2. Tillage of the site allows the site to be converted to cropland (state 3).
Absence of fire or lack of woody species management will move this site to a woodland state dominated by oak species, specifically black oak and white oak. The understory would contain many of the prairie species until the canopy closed. Woody understory species would include sassafras.
This site has largely been converted to agricultural use. Most of the historic acres are now in row crop agricultural use. Most common is a corn and soybean rotation of various types. Roughly 5% of the site is not used to grow hay or cool season forage and used for grazing.
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The Ecosystem Dynamics Interpretive Tool is an information system framework developed by the USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and New Mexico State University.
) icon wherever it occurs. Drag and drop items to reorder. Cookies are used to store briefcase items between browsing sessions. Because of this, the number of items that can be added to your briefcase is limited, and briefcase items added on one device and browser cannot be accessed from another device or browser. Users who do not wish to place cookies on their devices should not use the briefcase tool. Briefcase cookies serve no other purpose than described here and are deleted whenever browsing history is cleared.
