Honors Program Theses
Award/Availability
Open Access Honors Program Thesis
First Advisor
Laura Jackson, Honors Thesis Advisor
Keywords
Prairie restoration; Prairie plants--Seeds--Viability; Granivores;
Abstract
The Iowa around today looks vastly different from the Iowa that was originally around. What once used to house vast tallgrass prairies is now home to about 0.1% of what was originally here (Smith 1998). However, conservationists have been working hard to restore even a fraction of what originally here despite high costs and low yields in restoration prairies. Recently experiments have been done on the use of sacrificial seed to potentially increase plant yield in restoration with successful results. This study was done to further research the effects of supplemental seeding on seed predation and if seedling emergence would increase with supplemental seeding. Research on predation was done using seed cards and seedling emergence was counted after three months of growth. Results found that there was no change in seed predation or seedling emergence between control plots and plots containing supplemental seed. Further research in the area of supplemental seeding is necessary to determine the full capabilities of this method.
Year of Submission
2020
Department
Department of Biology
Department
Tallgrass Prairie Center
University Honors Designation
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors
Date Original
2020
Object Description
1 PDF file (17 pages)
Copyright
©2020 Isabella Betzer
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Betzer, Isabella, "Supplemental seeding and seed predation in a newly planted tallgrass prairie" (2020). Honors Program Theses. 447.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/hpt/447
