Northern Tallgrass Prairies
Landfire: Northern tallgrass prairie
USFS Bailey Ecoregion: Temperate Prairie 9.2
Northern tallgrass prairies have been some of the most fertile systems across the Great Plains. Located along the wetter, eastern edge of the North American rainfall gradient, and in cooler, northerly sites, these prairies supported highly productive and diverse plant communities. Soils are mollisols that consist of deep organic matter to 50cm depth or greater. Fierer et al. 2011 measured Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) levels of >4% in Hayden Prairie, Iowa and Sioux Prairie, SD. Higgins et al. (2001) inventoried remnant prairies in southeastern South Dakota, including Sioux Prairie Preserve, currently owned by The Nature Conservancy. Across the remnants, they identified 119 plant species of which only 13% were exotics. Eight indicator species occurred on all sites including big bluestem, little bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass, side-oats grama, leadplant, purple prairie clover, and Maximillian’s sunflower. Their inventory includes a comprehensive species list with a conservation value assigned for each species (see below). No biomass data were collected however thorough biomass assessments were conducted by Martin et al, 2005 in three remnants located in southwestern Iowa.
DASHBOARD
Plants and Litter: Summarized from Martin et al. 2005 for three remnant prairies in southwestern Iowa (AC Morris, Jasper Co.; Rolling Thunder Prairie, Warren Co.; Sheeder Prairie, Guthrie Co.)
Soil Organic Carbon Profile: Soil organic carbon content for Hayden Prairie, Howard Co., Iowa as reported by Russell et al. 2005. SOC was determined as the difference between Total Carbon (Carlo Erba analyzer) and Inorganic Carbon (modified pressure calcimeter).
Representative Soil Properties
| Soil Properties (Fierer et al. 2011) | Sioux Prairie (Colman Twnshp, SD) Top 10cm | Hayden Prairie (Howard Co., IO) Top 10cm |
| Texture | 61.3% silt/clay: 39.7% sand | 50.4% silt/clay; 49.6% sand |
| Bulk density (g/cm3) | 1.02 | 0.91 |
| pH | 6.4 | 6.9 |
| Soil organic carbon (%) | 4.70 | 5.51 |
| Total nitrogen (%) | 0.40 | 0.41 |
Literature Cited
Fierer, N., J Ladau, JC Clemente, JW Leff, SM Owens, KS Pollard, R Knight, JA Gilbert, and RL McCulley. 2011. Reconstructing the microbial diversity and function of pre-agricultural tallgrass prairie soils in the United States. Science 342 (Nov): 621-624.
Higgins, JJ, GE Larson, and KE Higgins. 2001. Floristic composition of tallgrass prairie remnants managed by different land stewardships in e. south Dakota. Proc. 17th N.A. Prairie Conference 21-31.
Martin, LM, KA Moloney and BJ Wilsey. 2005 An assessment of grassland restoration success using species diversity components. J. Applied Ecology 42(2): 327-336.
Russell, AE, DA Laird, TB Parkin and AP Mallarino. 2005. Impact of nitrogen fertilization and cropping system on carbon sequestration in midwestern mollisols. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 69: 413-422.
Note: Higgins (2001) complete plant list will be added soon.