Tallgrass prairie is one of the most endangered habitats in North America, with less than 10% of its original cover remaining. The largest tallgrass prairie habitat under conservation management is the Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in the Flint Hills of northeastern Oklahoma. We investigated the impact of management practices, specifically the fire and grazing regimes, on arthropod communities at this site. Parts of the preserve are grazed by bison, parts by cattle, and smaller areas remain ungrazed. Randomly selected sections of the preserve are burned each year, typically on a 3-7 year cycle. We sampled the arthropod community by D-vac three times during the 2019 growing season at 44 sections of the preserve that had experienced different grazing and fire regimes.
Results/Conclusions
Arthropod abundance and diversity varied over time and by management condition. In the early growing season sample, arthropod abundance and diversity was highest in cattle-grazed sections and lower in bison-grazed and ungrazed areas. Later in the season, abundance and diversity was similar among all areas. Fire effects were highly variable, with the time since the last fire affecting arthropod communities in ways that were not predictable. Our results suggest that current management practices create a variety of arthropod communities, although surprisingly, the historical grazing species (bison) did not enhance arthropod abundance and diversity, while the most common modern grazing species in the region (cattle) did.