Prairie restoration

A tallgrass prairie planting in Illinois

Prairie restoration is a conservation effort to restore prairie lands that were destroyed due to industrial, agricultural, commercial, or residential development.[1] The primary aim is to return areas and ecosystems to their previous state before their depletion.[2]

In the United States, after the Black Hawk War had subsided in the mid-1830s, settlers from northern Europe and north east of the US made a home for themselves.[3] They plowed up the tallgrasses and wild flowers in the area. By 1849 most specie of prairie grass had disappeared to make room for crops (i.e.: soybeans, corn, etc.).[3][4] Restored prairies and the grasses that survived the 1800 plowing represent only a fragment of the abundant verdure that once covered the midsection of North America from western Ohio to the Rockies and from southern Canada to Texas.[3] As an example, the U.S. state of Illinois alone once held over 35,000 square miles (91,000 km2) of prairie land and now just 3 square miles (7.8 km2) of that original prairie land is left. The over farming of this land as well as periods of drought and its exposure to the elements (no longer bound together by the tall grasses) was responsible for the Dust Bowls in the 1930s.[5]

Issues of erosion, and waning biodiversity have arisen in areas once populated by prairie grass species.[6] So in efforts of restoration, in Europe, when restoring previous crop land with prairie grasses, the most frequently used techniques involve: spontaneous succession, sowing seed mixtures, transfer of plant material, topsoil removal and transfer.[6] When maintaining these tall grasses, prescribed fire is a popular method.[7] It encourages taller and stronger regrowth as well as the recycling of nutrients in the soil.[8]

Although not fully able to restore the full diversity of an area, restoration efforts aid the thriving of the natural ecosystems. This is further improved by the specific reintroduction of key organisms from the native plants microbiome.[9] Prairie soil also effectively stores carbon. As carbon sinks, they work as a vital regulator of carbon in the atmosphere through carbon sequestration (withdrawal), and the carbon benefits the sustenance of diverse species in the prairie ecosystem.[10]

  1. ^ "Restoration | Minnesota DNR". www.dnr.state.mn.us. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  2. ^ Allison, Stuart K. (2004). "What "Do" We Mean When We Talk About Ecological Restoration?". Ecological Restoration. 22 (4): 281–286. doi:10.3368/er.22.4.281. ISSN 1543-4060. JSTOR 43442777. S2CID 84987493.
  3. ^ a b c "Gale - Product Login". galeapps.gale.com. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  4. ^ Faragher, John Mack (January 1, 1986). Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-04263-4.
  5. ^ "The revery alone won't do: Restoring America's prairies". Earth.com. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Török, Péter; Vida, Enikő; Deák, Balázs; Lengyel, Szabolcs; Tóthmérész, Béla (October 1, 2011). "Grassland restoration on former croplands in Europe: an assessment of applicability of techniques and costs". Biodiversity and Conservation. 20 (11): 2311–2332. doi:10.1007/s10531-011-9992-4. ISSN 1572-9710. S2CID 19753537.
  7. ^ Bailey, Pamela; Marin, Chester O (February 2007). "Overview of Prairie Planting Techniques and Maintenance Requirements". ERDC Knowledge Core. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  8. ^ Collins, Scott L.; Wallace, Linda L. (1990). Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2315-8.
  9. ^ Koziol, Liz; Crews, Timothy E.; Bever, James D. (February 26, 2020). "Native plant abundance, diversity, and richness increases in prairie restoration with field inoculation density of native mycorrhizal amendments". Restoration Ecology. 28 (S4). doi:10.1111/rec.13151. ISSN 1061-2971. S2CID 214521305.
  10. ^ DeLuca, Thomas H; Zabinski, Catherine A (March 15, 2011). "Prairie ecosystems and the carbon problem". Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9 (7): 407–413. doi:10.1890/100063. ISSN 1540-9295.