@article {KNZ00784,
	title = {Effects of plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) disturbances on tallgrass-prairie community structure},
	journal = {American Midland Naturalist},
	volume = {145},
	year = {2001},
	pages = {344 -357},
	abstract = {Our objective was to evaluate the effects of soil disturbances created by the plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) on the structure of a tallgrass-prairie plant community. We predicted that soil mounds and burrows would provide sites for the establishment of subordinate plant species, thereby increasing regional plant community richness in this ecosystem that is highly dominated by perennial C4 tallgrasses. Our results, however, revealed that plant species richness and biomass were temporarily decreased or unaffected in areas disturbed by gophers. Moreover, the species found locally on mounds and burrows were a subset of the dominant plants present in the undisturbed plant community and graminoids were more frequent on disturbances than forbs. Our results indicate that perennial graminoids predominate in the rapid recovery of vegetation on pocket gopher mounds and burrows. This preempts the establishment of less frequent forbs and, contrary to our predictions, decreases plant community richness.},
	keywords = {LTER-KNZ, tallgrass prairie},
	doi = {10.1674/0003-0031(2001)145[0344:EOPPGG]2.0.CO;2},
	author = {Rogers, W.E. and D.C. Hartnett and Elder, B.}
}
@article {KNZ00785,
	title = {Temporal vegetation dynamics and recolonization mechanisms on different-sized soil disturbances in tallgrass prairie},
	journal = {American Journal of Botany},
	volume = {88},
	year = {2001},
	pages = {1634 -1642},
	abstract = {Assessing the various mechanisms by which plants revegetate disturbances is important for understanding the effects of disturbances on plant population dynamics, plant community structure, community assembly processes, and ecosystem function. We initiated a 2-yr experiment examining temporal vegetation dynamics and mechanisms of recolonization on different-sized soil disturbances created to simulate pocket gopher mounds in North American tallgrass prairie. Treatments were designed to assess potential contributions of the seed rain, soil seed bank, clonal propagation from the edges of a soil mound, and regrowth of buried plants. Small mounds were more rapidly recolonized than large mounds. Vegetative regrowth strategies were the dominant recolonization mechanisms, while the seed rain was considerably less important in maintaining the diversity of forbs and annuals than previously believed. All recolonization mechanisms influenced plant succession, but stem densities and plant mass on soil mounds remained significantly lower than undisturbed controls after two growing seasons. Because natural pocket gopher mounds are indistinguishable from undisturbed areas after two seasons, these results suggest that multiple modes of recruitment concurrently, albeit differentially, contribute to the recolonization of soil disturbances and influence tallgrass prairie plant community structure and successional dynamics.},
	keywords = {LTER-KNZ, tallgrass prairie},
	url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21669697},
	author = {Rogers, W.E. and D.C. Hartnett}
}
@article {KNZ0016,
	title = {Vegetation responses to different spatial patterns of soil disturbances in burned and unburned tallgrass prairie},
	journal = {Plant Ecology},
	volume = {155},
	year = {2001},
	pages = {99 -109},
	abstract = {Pocket gopher (Geomyidae) disturbances are created in spatiallypredictable patterns. This may influence resource heterogeneity and affectgrassland vegetation in a unique manner. We attempt to determine the extent towhich density and spatial pattern of soil disturbances influence tallgrassprairie plant community structure and determine how these disturbances interactwith fire. To investigate the effects of explicit disturbance patterns we createdsimulated pocket gopher burrows and mounds in various spatial patterns.Simulated burrows were drilled into the soil at different densities inreplicated plots of burned and unburned prairie. Separate plots of simulatedmounds were created in burned and unburned prairie at low, medium, or high mounddensities in clumped, uniform, or random spatial dispersions. In both burned and unburned plots, increased burrow density decreasedgraminoid biomass and increased forb biomass. Total-plant and graminoid biomasswere higher in burned than unburned plots while forb biomass was higher inunburned plots. Total-plant species richness was not significantly affected byburrow density or burning treatments, but graminoid species richness increasedin unburned plots and forb species richness increased in burned plots. Plant species richness was temporarily reduced directly on mounddisturbances compared to undisturbed prairie. Over time and at larger samplingscales, the interaction of fire and mound disturbance patterns significantlyaffected total-plant and graminoid species richness. The principal effect inburned and unburned prairie was decreased total-plant and graminoid speciesrichness with increased mound disturbance intensity. Although species richness at small patch scales was not increased by anyintensity of disturbance and species composition was not altered by theestablishment of a unique guild of disturbance colonizing plants, our studyrevealed that interactions between soil disturbances and fire alter the plantcommunity dominance structure of North American tallgrass prairie primarily viachanges to graminoids. Moreover, these effects become increasingly pronouncedover time and at larger spatial sampling scales.},
	keywords = {LTER-KNZ, pattern, soil, spatial, tallgrass prairie, vegetation},
	doi = {10.1023/A:1013264308786},
	author = {Rogers, W.E. and D.C. Hartnett}
}
@phdthesis {KNZ00663,
	title = {The effects of soil disturbances on tallgrass prairie},
	volume = {PhD Dissertation},
	year = {1998},
	pages = {1 -220},
	school = {Kansas State University},
	type = {Ph.D. Thesis},
	address = {Manhattan, KS},
	keywords = {LTER-KNZ, tallgrass prairie},
	author = {Rogers, W.E.}
}
