Fire in North American Wetland Ecosystems and Fire-Wildlife Relations: An Annotated Bibliography

58. de la Cruz, A. A., and C. T. Hackney. 1981. The effects of winter fire and 
         harvest on the vegetational structure and productivity of two tidal 
         marsh communities in Mississippi. Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant 
         Consortium Publ. No. M-ASGP-80-013, Ocean Springs, MS. 115 pp.

Winter burning and harvesting (clipping to simulate haying) of needle rush marsh increased primary productivity of vascular vegetation by 21% to 48% during the following growing season. In big cordgrass marsh, primary productivity of treated plots not only increased by 12% to 24% over controls but also maintained higher productivity after two or three successive annual winter fires. Neither burning nor harvesting affected needle rush density, but height of plants decreased in harvested plots. Early flowering and greater number of culms with inflorescences also occurred in plots which received winter burning and harvesting. Minor plant species increased their biomass in the needle rush marsh for 2 to 3 consecutive years, presumably because of elimination of the restrictive canopy. Caloric and elemental constituents of both above- and below-ground tissues did not show seasonal patterns or clear-cut trends among treatment plots or between treatments and controls. [From authors' abstract]

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