Woody plant reinvasion shortens the lifespan of grassland restoration treatments

Authors

Dillon T. Fogarty
Michele Beadle, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
Craig R. Allen
Christine Bielski
Dirac Twidwell

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2025

Disciplines

Agriculture | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Forest Biology | Plant Sciences

Abstract

An important question in restoration ecology is whether restored ecological regimes are more vulnerable to transitions back to a degraded state. In woody-invaded grasslands, high-intensity fire can collapse woody plant communities and induce a shift back to a grass-dominated regime. Yet, legacies from woody-dominated regimes often persist and it remains unclear whether restored regimes are at heightened vulnerability to reinvasion. In this study, we utilize a 17-year history of fire-based restoration in Nebraska's Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape to determine whether restored grassland regimes experience faster rates of Juniperus virginiana (eastern redcedar) reinvasion compared to the initial invasion process in adjacent grasslands. In addition, we examine whether reinvasion and invasion patterns are clearly differentiated based on former ecotonal boundaries between grassland and woodland regimes. Our results show that J. virginiana reinvasion of restored grassland regimes outpaced the initial invasion process in adjacent grasslands, providing evidence that restored grassland regimes are more vulnerable to transitions back to woody dominance. J. virginiana seedlings established sooner and increased faster in density and cover during reinvasion compared to the initial invasion process. Seedlings established 1-year post-fire in restored grassland regimes compared to 14-years post-fire in adjacent grasslands that were >40 m from the former grassland-woodland boundary. Reinvasion was initially easy to differentiate from invasion based on former ecotonal boundaries between grassland and woodland; however, reestablished juniper woodlands eventually began to expand into adjacent grasslands. Our findings demonstrate clear differences between reinvasion and invasion and highlight the need for management frameworks that explicitly account for reinvasion.

Copyright Statement

© 2025 The Authors.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Fogarty DT, Beadle M, Allen CR, Bielski C, Twidwell D. 2025. Woody plant reinvasion shortens the lifespan of grassland restoration treatments. Journal of Environmental Management. 374:124020. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.124020.