Historical grassland disturbance regimes are unrecoverable because native agents were eliminated

Evidence

A major difficulty in examining the significance of disturbance agents in grasslands is the profound dearth of natural systems where the disturbance regime even approaches that of historical conditions. Most of the former grassland area is now under some form of management, ranging from the intensive cultivation of much of the Tallgrass and True Prairie to management for livestock production in most of the Shortgrass Prairie. In both, of course, the native animal populations have been much modified and, in the case of prairie dogs and buffalo, virtually eliminated. Even the abundance of ant species can be altered by changes in the density of aboveground herbage production, a factor of some concern where the grasslands have only been grazed. Although it is probable that we will never really know the details of the grassland as a dynamic system because we cannot fully reconstruct the role of animals in it, we should formulate and examine the simplest hypotheses as to their potential role in conjunction with drought, fire, and wind. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 510

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the course’s ‘reading disturbance history from present landscape structure’ thread: the baseline agents (bison, prairie dogs, pocket gophers) are gone, so interpretation must work from incomplete evidence — an environmental-justice-paired erasure point. — connects to: Settler farming ended prairie fires and converted grassland to oak woodland — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 116; Suppressing disturbance makes ecosystems more vulnerable to catastrophe — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2073
• QUESTION: If natural disturbance agents are unrecoverable, which restored prairie mammal reintroductions (e.g., bison, prairie dogs) are actually restoring a disturbance regime versus approximating it?

Broader Connections

• Suppressing disturbance makes ecosystems more vulnerable to catastrophe #qualifies (0.72) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2073