Monitoring is a critical way for us to record benchmarks that we can use to gauge the effectiveness of our restoration efforts. Restoration at CERA primarily involves canopy thinning, prescribed fire, invasive species control, and seeding and tranplanting. Data and other observations recoreded for areas undergoing restoration can also be valuable for research projects. The types of data available for each area differ and are described in more detail on the following Project web pages:

Student Research

  • Shakir, Zainab. 2001.
    The effects of seeding history, life history characteristics and management practices on the introduction success of native species in reconstructed prairies at the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA).
    MAP, Vince Eckhart.
    [Floristic surveys of 6 prairie reconstructions varying in burn and seeding histories: Perley, Perley Fall Burn, Perley 2 Year Burn, Deaner, Perley No Burn, and the Lab Prairie; collected data twice in each area on the presence of 26 species; investigated relationships between frequency and seeding year, seed density, ability to fix nitrogen; no consistent relationships were found between introduction success and seeding and life history variables; only the Lab Prairie did total number of seed introductions predict frequency.]
  • Robertson, Morgan M. 2001.
    History, restoration and fire-management of an abrupt prairie-forest ecotone.
    Karl DeLong.

Publications

  • Robertson, Morgan M. 2001. Adjacent woodlot accelerates the dispersal rate of bur oak into an old field (Iowa). Ecological Restoration 19(3): 181-182.