Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

2026

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Natural Resource Management

First Advisor

Lora Perkins

Abstract

Community Assembly Theory is a framework used to describe the process by which species from a regional species pool disperse and encounter various abiotic and biotic conditions that act as filters, limiting which species will populate a specific local community. Prairie restoration success can be improved by understanding abiotic and biotic filters. As agricultural practices have adopted integrated weed management plans, that include the use of both chemical and non-chemical techniques, another filter needs to be considered during restoration: the chemical load of soils, i.e., herbicide residue from recent on-site applications and herbicide drift from adjacent areas. To examine the potential effects of an ‘herbicide’ filter three soils were collected from western Minnesota, each with different levels of sulfentrazone and metolachlor, which have been identified by practitioners to be of high concern. Two growth chamber experiments were conducted to test the response of six native forbs and two seed treatments, seed size and activated carbon coating to naturally occurring concentrations of herbicides. Response variables included emergence percentage, emergence rate and seedling performance. Results indicated a species-specific response to chemical load. The seed treatment results indicated that large seeded species may be more tolerant of the filtering effects of chemical load. The results suggest that chemical load may function as an herbicide filter impacting prairie restoration and that larger seeded species could improve the initial stages of restoration by having greater emergence and performance. Land practitioners can use these findings to improve prairie restoration practices by acknowledging the presence of this third filter (herbicide) when preparing restoration plans as well overcome the limiting effects of chemical load by including a greater proportion of large seeded species when designing seed mixes.

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright