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Drivers of vegetative structural heterogeneity on conservation reserve program grasslands
Dudley, Alexandra Mae
Dudley, Alexandra Mae
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t26009_Dudley.pdf
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2026-05
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North American grasslands are in significant decline due to agricultural conversion and woody encroachment, with only 38% of historical landcover remaining. While the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) restores grasslands on private lands, these areas often lack the structural heterogeneity needed for high quality wildlife habitat. Cattle grazing has been proposed as a management tool to increase this heterogeneity. We evaluated the relative influence of inherent heterogeneity and management-induced heterogeneity on 29 CRP fields in the shortgrass prairie of Colorado and the tallgrass prairie of Kansas during the 2025 growing season. Using visual obstruction readings and variance partitioning, we found that inherent variation within and between sites was the dominant driver of vegetation structure, accounting for 35-42% of the total variance. In contrast, cattle grazing (1-8%) and seasonal growth (5-9%) explained significantly less of the structural patterns. Results varied by region: in Colorado, heterogeneity increased naturally with seasonal growth regardless of grazing. In Kansas, however, grazing had a detectable, though relatively small, impact on structural heterogeneity by the late growing season. Despite the negative effects of grazing in Kansas, our findings suggest that inherent variation within and between sites may play a larger role in shaping habitat heterogeneity than a single year of cattle grazing. Part of this inherent variation can be contributed to changes plant community composition, as plant community dissimilarity was positively linked to structural heterogeneity on non-grazed sites in Colorado. However, this relationship was absent in Kansas and grazing suppressed this relationship in both regions. To enhance heterogeneity on CRP lands, managers should prioritize identifying and maintaining key sources of existing variation, such as soil heterogeneity and plant community composition. In many cases, protecting this inherent variation may be as important as introducing new management-driven disturbances.
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Thesis (M.S.)-- Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Biological Sciences
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Wichita State University
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© Copyright 2026 by Alexandra M. Dudley
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