Natural Areas Journal 

About: Natural Areas Journal is an academic journal published by BioOne (Natural Areas Journal). The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Species richness & Population. It has an ISSN identifier of 0885-8608. Over the lifetime, 993 publications have been published receiving 15193 citations.

Green Infrastructure, Linking Landscapes and Communities

Abstract: Burger has organized her book into several sections with one or more chapters per section. The book begins with a two-chapter introduction where the author describes some of the organisms and processes that characterize pine barrens by presenting stories of her work and other connections with the barrens. She provides the geographic setting of the book (primarily the Atlantic Coastal Plain), with a primary emphasis on pine barrens in New York and New Jersey and with a lesser focus in South Carolina and Florida. She also differentiates between pine barrens and pine forests. Burger states (p. 15) that “most pine barrens” in the United States occur along the Atlantic Coastal Plain. It would be helpful to provide an acreage figure that could be compared to similar natural communities in other parts of the country, such as the Midwest (e.g., 0.9 million hectares of pine barrens in presettlement Wisconsin (Curtis, 1959)). In the following sections, Burger quickly jumps into individual pine barrens. In each section, written from north to south, Burger generally describes the geologic history, ecological processes, plants and animals, and human use, from paleo-Indians into this century of pine barrens. The author also discusses some of the conservation issues associated with each pine barrens system, and, in general, is pretty optimistic about the prospects. She effectively creates these portraits through a series of vignettes and personal experiences.

Fire Frequency Effects on Longleaf Pine ( Pinus palustris P. Miller) Vegetation in South Carolina and Northeast Florida, USA

Abstract: 22 Natural Areas Journal ABSTRACT: Southeastern United States habitats dominated by longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Miller) have declined precipitously in area and extent. Conservation of diverse ground-layer vegetation in these endangered habitats depends on prescribed fire. While the need for prescribed fire is now· generally accepted, there is disagreement concerning the most appropriate fire regime. One of the more important variables is frequency of fire. Several hypothetical relationships between fire frequency and vascular plant richness and composition are suggested by the existing literature. Results of two long-term prescribed fire studies support the hypothesis that burning as frequently as fuels permit is optimal for maintaining the largest number of native ground-layer plant species. However, frre frequency effects on species composition differed between the two studies. Increasing fire frequency in South Carolina Ultisol flatwoods and wet savannas was associated with a distinct shift from woody to herbaceousdominated communities. Herbs, particularly bunchgrasses and perennial forbs, dominated annualand biennial-burn treatment plots, whereas triennialand quadrennial-burn plots were shrub-dominated. In contrast, annual and biennial frres did not produce herbaceous dominated ground-layer vegetation in North Florida Spodosol flatwoods. Reduced dominance of saw palmetto and somewhat increased importance of forbs and grasses, particularly rhizomatous grasses, distinguished the annually burned plots. However, biennialand quadrennial-burn plots were similar in composition and did not differ signifrcantly in species richness at the largest spatial scale.

Deer Facilitate Invasive Plant Success in a Pennsylvania Forest Understory

Abstract: Invasive species impose severe biological and economic costs worldwide. In forested ecosystems, invasive species supplant native species, resulting in decreased biodiversity. Furthermore, human-mediated disturbances may stress native forest species and benefit invasive species that thrive in disturbed habitats. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape have caused unprecedented increases in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) numbers, which has resulted in the degradation of understory native plant communities. We suggest that deer-mediated disturbance to understory communities facilitates the success of invaders in forests. Many North American forests experience both exotic plant invasion and deer overabundance, but the two problems have never been empirically linked. In this paper, we quantify deer effects on native and exotic understory herbs in a western Pennsylvania forest. We show that the percentage of bare ground and the relative abundances of the invasive herbs, Alliaria petiolata a...