Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Fire Effects on Four Growth Stages of
Smooth Brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.)1
Gary D. Willson 2
USDI Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Northern Prairie
Wildlife Research Center
Missouri Field Station, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri
65211 USA
James Stubbendieck
Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583
USA
Abstract
The invasion and persistence of smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.)
are serious problems facing managers of warm-season pastures and prairie remnants
in the Midwest. Although difficult to control, smooth brome can be reduced when
tiller growing points are removed by management activities such as prescribed
fire. This study, conducted from 1988 through 1991 at Mead, Nebraska, measured
changes in smooth brome tiller density and biomass in seeded, mixed-grass stands
following spring prescription burns. Burning was timed to coincide with four
smooth brome growth stages and included repeated burns in consecutive years.
Burning at tiller emergence did not affect smooth brome tiller density or biomass
in years when precipitation was normal or below normal. However, with above
normal precipitation, smooth brome biomass more than doubled the year after
a tiller-emergence burn. Burning during tiller elongation, heading, and flowering
significantly reduced smooth brome tiller density and biomass. Repeated burns,
at tiller elongation and later stages, maintained low smooth brome tiller density
and biomass. A single burn, however, allowed partial to full recovery of smooth
brome density and biomass by the following year. Implications of the study are
presented for management consideration.
Index terms: exotic grasses, prescribed fire, smooth brome, tiller
development
This resource is based on the following source (Northern Prairie Publication
1017):
Willson, Gary D., and James Stubbendieck. 1997. Fire effects on four growth
stages of smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.). Natural Areas Journal
17(4)306-312.
This resource should be cited as:
Willson, Gary D., and James Stubbendieck. 1997. Fire effects on four growth
stages of smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.). Natural Areas Journal
17(4)306-312. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/habitat/brominer/index.htm
(Version 02MAR98).
Table of Contents
Gary Wilson is an Ecologist at the Missouri Field Station, Biological
Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor
in the School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri in Columbia. He administers
long-term ecological monitoring programs in national parks of the Ozarks and
central Great Plains. He also conducts research on the effects of fire on exotic
and rare plants.
James Stubbendieck is Professor of Rangeland Ecology at the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He teaches senior/graduate-level courses
on ecology, taxonomy, and sampling techniques. He conducts research on prescribed
burning and the ecology of endangered species.
1 This article is Journal series No. 11250, Agricultural Research
Division, University of Nebraska.
2 At the time of the research, the senior author was a graduate
student at the Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
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