caa a22 4500 475751086 CHVBK 20180406123523.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170329e20000801xx s 000 0 eng 10.1023/A:1026536223478 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1023/A:1026536223478 Patterns of plant species richness in pasture lands of the northeast United States [Elektronische Daten] [Benjamin Tracy, Matt Sanderson] Pasture lands are an important facet of land use in the northeast United States, yet little is known about their recent diversity. To answer some fundamental questions about the diversity of these pasture lands, we designed a broad survey to document plant species richness using an intensive, multi scale sampling method. We also wanted to learn whether environmental (soils or climate) or land management variables could help explain patterns of species richness. A total of 17 farms, encompassing 37 pastures, were sampled in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts and Connecticut during July and August 1998. We positively identified a total of 161 different plant species across the study region. Species richness averaged 31.7±1.1 on pastures. Infrequent, transient species that were mostly perennial and annual forbs accounted for ∼ 90% of the species richness. Except for a subjective rating of grazing intensity, land management methods were not good predictors of species richness. Over time, it appears that grazing neither reduces nor increases species richness in pastures. Of the environmental variables measured, only soil P explained a significant amount of the variation in species richness. Soil P was inversely related to species richness at the 1m2 scale. Percent SOM was positively associated with species richness at this scale, although weakly. At larger spatial scales, we suggest that patterns of species richness are best explained by the species diversity of soil seed banks, or seed rain, and stochastic recruitment of these species into existing vegetation. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000 Comparisons with other grasslands nationallicence Environmental variables nationallicence Management intensive grazing nationallicence Land management nationallicence Plant diversity nationallicence Transient species nationallicence Tracy Benjamin Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Lab., USDA-ARS, Bldg. 3702, Curtin Rd., 16802, University Park, PA, USA aut Sanderson Matt Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Lab., USDA-ARS, Bldg. 3702, Curtin Rd., 16802, University Park, PA, USA aut Plant Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 149/2(2000-08-01), 169-180 1385-0237 149:2<169 2000 149 11258 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026536223478 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026536223478 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Tracy Benjamin Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Lab., USDA-ARS, Bldg. 3702, Curtin Rd., 16802, University Park, PA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sanderson Matt Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Lab., USDA-ARS, Bldg. 3702, Curtin Rd., 16802, University Park, PA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Plant Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 149/2(2000-08-01), 169-180 1385-0237 149:2<169 2000 149 11258 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer