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Influence of Altered Fire Return Intervals on Plant Diversity in the East Texas Pineywoods

William J. Steinley, Brian P. Oswald*, Kathryn R. Kidd, Jessica Glasscock

The re-establishment of historic fire return intervals is vital to restoring forest health, species diversity, natural succession pathways and reduction of some invasive species. Studies in southern pine understory plant communities have revealed increased plant diversity and richness in response to fire, particularly in longleaf pine dominated sites. We aimed to further investigate the effect of fire frequency, stand characteristics and site management on understory plant community compositions in East Texas. Using 20 years of burn history data, fire return intervals were classified as either high or low; plots were also analyzed by site and cover type. Fuel load, litter depth, basal area, and canopy cover were recorded. Understory species occurrence was recorded to genus level and separated into grass, forb, and woody growth form groups. Our results indicated that grass and forb richness increased in response to greater fire frequencies. This effect was observed across multiple sites, with high fire frequency groups containing nearly twice as many grass species and over three times as many forb species. Increased basal area and litter depth were negatively correlated with forb, grass, and total richness. Increased understory plant richness was found on frequently burned upland pine communities, so management objectives that include increasing understory diversity in this region should include short interval prescribed fire rotations.