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Building Ecosystem Resiliency through Innovative Silvopasture Systems on South Carolina Farms
This project will develop a silvopasture strategy that combines native warm season forages, pollinator alleys and established pine stands to help South Carolina farmers interested in climate-smart agriculture. The innovation will help producers enhance crop and livestock productivity, increase the resiliency of their land, and diversify their profits in the face of global climate change (NRCS-USDA Funded).
Pineywoods cattle grazing in 10 year old planted longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) with herbaceous understory in South Carolina.
Managing Longleaf Pine Forests through Livestock Grazing
Managing Longleaf Pine Forests through Livestock Grazing
Prescribed fire is an integral part of maintaining longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) understory vegetation, which in turn supports diverse wildlife habitat. Similarly, livestock grazing in longleaf can influence the structure, function and diversity of the understory. Using this practice in longleaf pine forests boasts the potential to enhance existing wildlife habitat or create new habitat suitable for focal species, maintain biodiversity, sequester carbon and enhance water quality. This project is assessing the impacts of grazing impacts on longleaf pine ecosystem health to inform landowners on this agroforestry practice and its potential to serve as a sustainable, value-added food production system for the southeastern United States.
Grassland disturbance ecology
Grasslands worldwide are subject to major change due to altered water, nutrient and disturbance regimes. This study examines the impacts changing nutrient dynamics and disturbance regimes on herbaceous productivity, diversity and soil greenhouse gas efflux. This work will contribute to a larger project, DRAGNet, and allow us to better understand global patterns and drivers of grassland community composition under changing environmental conditions.
Hobcaw Barony DRAGNet site in Georgetown, South Carolina.
A spartina alterniflora dominated saltmarsh in the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Georgetown, South Carolina.
Trait variability in a South Carolina salt marsh grass species facing impacts from climate change
Halophytic plants thrive in high saline environments due to their physiological adaptations. Examples of adaptations include sequestering salt in specialized glands, selective ion exclusion, and ion secretion. Furthermore, these adaptations allow halophytes to exhibit phenotypic plasticity in response to a changing environment at different spatial and temporal scales. The governing thresholds of how much an individual plant or population can respond to salinity levels are not well understood. The ability to be phenotypically plastic could indicate the invasibility of a species when environmental conditions pass a survivorship threshold. The goal of this project is to provide preliminary data on trait variability in Spartina alterniflora, a dominant grass species in South Carolina salt marshes, along multiple transects in the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Georgetown, South Carolina.
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