Plant community responses to bison reintroduction on the Northern Great Plains, United States: a test of the keystone species concept.
Abstract
Keystone species restoration, or the restoration of species whose effect on an ecosystem is much greater than their abundance would suggest, is a central justification for many wildlife reintroduction projects globally. Following restoration, plains bison (Bison bisonL.) have been identified as a keystone species in the tallgrass prairie ecoregion, but we know of no research to document similar effects in the mixed‐grass prairie where restoration efforts are ongoing. This study addresses whether Northern Great Plains (NGP) mixed‐grass prairie plant communities exhibit traits consistent with four central keystone effects documented for bison in the tallgrass prairie. We collected species composition, diversity, abundance, bare ground cover, and plant height data in three treatments: where livestock (Bos taurusL.) continuously grazed, livestock were removed for 10 years, and bison have been introduced and resident for 10 years. We observed mixed support for bison acting as keystone species in this system. Supporting the keystone role of bison, we observed higher species richness and compositional heterogeneity (β‐diversity) in the bison treatment than either the livestock retention or livestock removal treatments. However, we observed comparable forb, bare ground, and plant height heterogeneity between bison‐restored sites and sites where livestock were retained, contradicting reported keystone effects in other systems. Our results suggest that after 10 years of being restored, bison partially fulfill their role as a keystone species in the mixed‐grass prairie, and we encourage continued long‐term data collection to evaluate their influence in the NGP.
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Bison grazing promotes higher species richness and compositional diversity in mixed-grass prairies.
“promotes higher species richness and compositional diversity in mixed-grass prairies (McMillan et al., 2019).”
From The Potential of Bison Restoration as an Ecological Approach to Future Tribal Food Sovereignty on the Northern Great Plains (2022) · cites this paper as McMillan et al., 2019
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- Authors
- McMillan, N. A., Kunkel, K. E., Hagan, D. L., & Jachowski, D. S.
- Affiliations
- Clemson University (US)
- American Prairie Reserve 7 East Beall Street No. 100, Bozeman MT 59715 U.S.A.
- Corresponding author
- McMillan, Nicholas A.
- Venue
- Restoration Ecology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-08-09
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 379-388
- ISSN
- 1061-2971 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-100X
- OpenAlex
- W2811116742
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 1.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Restoration Ecology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Keywords
- plains bison, bison, keystone species, bison reintroduction, mixed-grass prairie, Northern Great Plains, tallgrass prairie, floristic composition, species richness, beta diversity, livestock grazing, bare ground, plant height, prairie restoration
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