PS 34-248 - Accelerating ecological restoration of post-agricultural landscapes in the face of woody plant invasion in southwestern Ohio, USA

Abstract: Ecological restoration in landscapes heavily impacted by industrial agriculture is a pressing scientific concern that will require the development of techniques that facilitate the establishment of biodiverse habitats in post-agricultural fields. Initial vegetation composition shifts rapidly early in secondary succession and may drive longer-term establishment of native species during old-field succession. Working with our community partners at the Five Rivers Metroparks (Dayton, Ohio), we have established a fully replicated long-term restoration experiment on a 30-acre former agricultural field. The long-term management goal for this abandoned farmland is to establish a prairie community that transitions to mature oak forests. The experimental design includes four prairie seed mix treatments each replicated 5 times in 50 × 50 m plots and applied in spring of 2020: (1) high diversity with high legume content; (2) high diversity with low legume content; (3) low diversity with high legume content; (4) low diversity with low legume content. Each of the plots was then subdivided into four subplots and each of these received one of four soil amendment treatments: (i) leaf mulch; (ii) whole soil inoculation; (iii) whole soil + leaf mulch and (iv) control. Vegetation was assessed systematically using two transects to establish 6 1m2 quadrat within each subplot each year of the experiment. The plant community changed with time, there has been an increase in species richness of native plants, and invasive and woody cover in 2022 compared to 2020 and 2021. There was less bare ground in 2022 than in 2020 (P < 0.05) indicating successful establishment and develop of the prairie community. Initial observations of the plant community indicated that the seed mix treatments influence the plant composition and, specifically, the high diversity and high legume seed mix were statistically different from the other seed mixes. Currently, there is no statistically significant relationship seen between species composition and soil amendments. In summary, these results indicate that the initial colonizing community was influenced by the experimental seed additions; however, the relationship to soil amendments is unclear. Future work is needed to assess colonization by woody plants including both native colonizers and non-native invasive plants.