Long-Term Effects of Burns on the Understories of Fragmented Suburban Forests in the Midwestern USA

Suburban forests provide valuable habitat for native species and contribute to the overall biodiversity in human dominated landscapes. Within these forests, most plant species are found within the understory and are herbaceous (‘herbs’, hereafter). Management actions, such as prescribed burns, conducted by natural resource managers to reduce the prevalence of non-native and invasive woody species can also affect herbs by altering the light and soil conditions in the understory and opening new sites for colonization, which can change the understory community. Although management actions are commonly conducted, uncertainty in their long-term effect on suburban forests remain. I utilize a long-term monitoring dataset collected by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County (FPDDC) combined with management records, land use and landcover data, and assembled trait data to inform statistical and simulation models that investigate how prescribed burns interact with the landscape context to shape plant diversity within, between, and among suburban forest understories over time. The combined results of this dissertation indicate that prescribed management burns help maintain species richness in the understory of suburban forests. The effectiveness of these burns, however, may depend on the landscape context surrounding the area being managed and the overall amount of habitat fragmentation in the landscape. Prescribed burns can shift the frequency of species with certain traits in the understory, which can lead to a homogenization of traits between forest understories. Natural resource managers should be cognizant of these trait changes, as they may have unintended consequences on ecosystem functions and services. The results of this dissertation show how prescribed burns affect biodiversity in suburban forests across scales and inform where prescribed burns are best used to benefit the conservation of species with different traits.

Author dc:creator

• Philip Paul Johnson (24400241)

• Biology
• Ecology

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright
• Open Access after 2028-05-01

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.32995289.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32995289