Spatially discrete disturbance processes enhance grassland floral resources

Grasslands provide essential floral resources for both managed and wild pollinators. However, grassland flowers in remaining native landscapes are threatened due to nonnative plant invasions and alterations to historic disturbance regimes such as fire and grazing. The potential for managed disturbance to promote grassland floral resources remains unclear. Fire and grazing historically occurred interactively, but uniform application of each may be a detriment to floral resources and the pollinators depending on them. Though fire can increase resources available to plants and stimulate flowering, it initially destroys floral resources and may delay flower availability. Similarly, grazing removes competitors of flowering plants, but destroys flower heads.
To address this knowledge gap, we investigated the impacts patch-burn grazing with one and two seasons of fire per year versus season-long grazing with no fire on floral resources in mixed-grass prairie. In patch-burn treatments, part of ...