DOI: 10.5061/dryad.q08mn53
title: Data from: Plant community response to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) population source in establishing prairies

description: Ecological restoration and revegetation efforts entail the translocation
 of native plant populations. Risks associated with these efforts include
 failure of translocated populations to establish or, conversely, such
 strong establishment that they excessively dominate the recipient
 community. The role that selective breeding plays in mediating these risks
 is unclear but of increasing importance as efforts to restore and
 establish multifunctional grasslands also increase. In a three-year,
 spatially replicated study, we seeded experimental prairie communities
 with either domesticated (cultivar) or undomesticated strains of Panicum
 virgatum (switchgrass), a North American C4 species under development as a
 biomass crop. We evaluated the composition, performance, and diversity of
 the recipient plant communities and compared the performance of cultivar
 and undomesticated switchgrass in those communities. We found little
 evidence that switchgrass population source affected community response.
 Switchgrass cultivars modestly exceeded undomesticated strains with
 respect to stand establishment, third-year stand density, and aboveground
 biomass; effect size and significance differed among sites. Our results
 suggest that including cultivars in ecological restorations and
 multifunctional grasslands may enhance success of switchgrass
 establishment with little risk of impairing the composition or diversity
 of plant communities for up to three years, as reflected in the measures
 used here. However, the incorporation of undomesticated switchgrass into
 multifunctional grasslands may enhance landscape-scale genetic variation
 and mitigate risks associated with gene flow between translocated and
 local wild switchgrass populations; more research on these dynamics is
 needed.
description: census of 3rd-year
 (2012) experimental prairie plant communitiesData file contains full
 censuses for 72 plots (1m x 1m) at each of 3 experimental sites in
 Minnesota, USA. Each plot was established in 2010 by sowing a standard
 restoration mix of grasses, forbs and legumes; each plot was then oversown
 with 1 of 12 strains of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). Of the 12 strains,
 6 were selectively-bred cultivars and 6 were undomesticated populations.
 The censuses were conducted at the end of the 3rd growing season, in 2012.
 See corresponding article (Flint, Jordan, Shaw) for
 detailsAllSiteCensus.txtComm_Biomass20123rd-year aboveground biomass values for experimental prairie plots that hosted either 1 of 6 switchgrass cultivars or 1 of 6 undomesticated switchgrass strains. Half of the replicate plots were harvested; the unharvested plots are indicated by having all "0" values.SwitchAbundEstabPersist_10_11_12Data of switchgrass censuses conducted in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years of experiment (2010, 2011, 2012; see Flint, Jordan & Shaw for details), at 4 evaluation sites in Minnesota USA. Switchgrass strains were either selectively bred cultivars (n=6) or undomesticated populations (n=6). See Flint, Jordan & Shaw for details on each of the 12 strains. Each experimental plot measured 1m x 1m and also contained an experimental prairie plant community established from a standard restoration seed mix containing grasses, forbs & legumes.