Long-Term Grass Dynamics Within a Mixed-Grass Prairie

Authors

Brian S. Mihlbacher, Texas A&M University, College Station
Fred E. Smeins, Texas A&M University, College Station
Gerald W. Thomas, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Charles A. Taylor, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Sonora, Texas

Date of this Version

1989

Comments

Published in Prairie Pioneers: Ecology, History and Culture: Proceedings of the Eleventh North American Prairie Conference, August 7-11, 1988, Lincoln, Nebraska (Lincoln, NE 1989).

Abstract

Western portions of the Edwards Plateau are dominated by a grass mosaic which consists of a rhizomatous midgrass, tobosagrass [Hilaria mutica (Buckl.) Benth.], and two stoloniferous short grasses, common curlymesquite [Hilaria belangeri (Steud.) Nash] and buffalograss [Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm.]. Permanent 0.3 m x 6 m belt transects were established on three major soil series (Tobosa, Ozona. Valera) across several grazing treatments on the Texas Range Station near Barnhart, Texas, and the distribution of perennial grasses was mapped in 1951 (pre-drought), 1953 (drought), 1957 (post-drought), and 1987. Cover showed no consistent trends in relation to grazing. Total grass cover and composition within each soil series was found to be similar in 1951 and 1987, but cover was reduced by 20 to 56% during the drought period due primarily to a decrease in short-grass cover. This grassland mosaic exhibits a high degree of resistance and resilience to climatic variability.