Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

2026

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Natural Resource Management

First Advisor

Lora Perkins

Abstract

Temperate grasslands have faced immense losses due to land use change in the last 150 years and less than half of the overall grasslands that once covered North America remain today. A portion of historic and remaining U.S. grasslands are located within the northern Great Plains (NGP) region which is home to over 1,600 species of native plants and provides many ecosystem services and economic benefits. Initiatives to restore grasslands and their ecosystem services are currently underway, but barriers such as limited native seed supply and granivory hinder restoration efforts. My first chapter addresses knowledge gaps in planting methods for native seed production in species native to the northern Great Plains (NGP). In a common garden plot, I planted seeds and plugs of seven forb species commonly used in restoration seed mixes in the NGP. I compared performance metrics of plants grown from seeds and plugs and conducted a cost-analysis to determine the most successful and cost-effective planting method. I found plants grown from plugs to have a significantly higher probability of presence than plants grown from seeds in 5 of 7 focal species (two species were excluded from analysis due to 0% presence in plants grown from seeds). Height and number of flowering stems were also higher in plants grown from plugs at the end of the experiment. Despite plugs outperforming seeds, planting seeds was still more cost-effective than market or wholesale-priced plugs. This research will help guide seed producers in selecting planting methods based on plant performance and cost. My second chapter explored granivory trends at a native seed production plot and a remnant prairie both located in the NGP. A “cafeteria study” was conducted at each site to analyze seed removal rates between eight native grass and forb species. Seed removal varied between species of seed and granivore type, granivore type and month, site and granivore types, and species and month revealing granivore seed preferences, and seasonal granivory trends. These results highlight the need for restoration planning to account for potential granivore impacts. Understanding granivore impacts among different restoration contexts can inform seeding rates, species selection, timing of seeding, to increase establishment success in restoration projects.

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright