Vegetation removal and seed addition contribute to coastal sandplain grassland establishment on former agricultural fields

摘要: Creating native-species-rich grasslands to replace agricultural can be an important strategy for supplementing the area of grasslands, which are in decline many regions. In northeastern United States, sandplain support a diverse plant community and rare animal species that declining because reductions historical disturbances such as fire grazing. We designed experiment on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, test methods establishing coastal grassland former land. tested efficacy of: (1) tilling, herbicide, hot foam, plastic cover removing initial nonnative vegetation, (2) combinations tilling seeding native species. measured richness percent before 5 years after treatment. Herbicide, cover, spring, summer, fall were about equally effective reducing promoting cover. Tilling each increased together more than either treatment alone. Combined disturbance also reduced species, but remained higher adjacent reference grassland. Results indicated establishment was enhanced by availability seeds reduction The most efficient method converting with number proportion is single season removal seeding.