Fire & fitness of EA

Description: This recruitment experiment quantifies seedling emergence and juvenile survival of Echinacea angustifolia during its reintroduction to previously agricultural sites. We evaluate effects of two types of extant vegetation (restoration vs. old-field) on recruitment and effects of prescribed burning at four times relative to sowing. Seedlings, basal plants, and flowering plants were counted annually from 2001-2014. For 2015 and future years flowering plants are mapped as part of the demographic census in remnants experiment.

Burned plots at Hegg Lake WMA

Start year: Plantings in Octobers of 2000-2012

Location: Ten study plots on State land with different land use histories: old-field and restored grassland.

Products: A paper (Wagenius et al. 2012) published in Restoration Ecology.

Overlaps with: Demographic census in remnants

Links to flog posts: Read updates about this experiment on our flog (field blog) as written by members of Team Echinacea.