Research in Iowa grasslands may bring researcher Brian Wilsey one step closer to understanding plant diversity’s effects on grassland restoration.

Through his research, Wilsey said he hopes to understand what causes high and low diversity, and the importance of plant diversity in grassland productivity.

“It is a big challenge to restore grasslands,” said Wilsey, assistant professor of botany. “Our goal is to understand what causes diversity in prairies so we can restore them better.”

Diversity of plants effect on prairie grass productivity is an important issue in ecology right now, said Kirk Moloney, associate professor of botany.

“It’s a big topic. There is a debate whether diversity causes plants to be more stable and resist change,” he said.

Wilsey received a Faculty Development Grant of $3,000 to investigate the importance of plant diversity in prairies. The money will go towards supplies and travel expenses, he said.

Wilsey’s research, “Plant Diversity and Grassland Productivity: Is Species Evenness Important?” will conduct research in three areas. One research plot is near completion in the Blackland Prairie region in Texas and two other plots will be in Iowa. In the Iowan research areas, he said he will set up perennial grasslands with diverse species in square meter plots and investigate their productivity, diversity and weed invasion after one year of growth.

Wilsey said one Iowan plot will investigate the effects of animal grazing on plant diversity at the Neil Smith Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City where bison graze. Wilsey and his research assistant, Leanne Martin, will set up plots with and without enclosures that will prevent bison grazing.

“We are looking at bison grazing effects on plant diversity,” said Martin, graduate student in botany. “By looking at plant diversity we can see how restoration and diversity can improve.”

Plant diversity is thought to be important in grassland productivity. Through his research, Wilsey said he hopes to find out if this is true.

“We want to find out if diversity is important to productivity,” he said. “If it is important we can plant a variety of species; if it’s not important we could just plant one species.”

Wilsey said the other Iowan location will be at Iowa State’s Western Research Farm near Castena. This research area will look at plots with different diversity levels.

The amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen absorbed and stored in the plants will be measured, he said. Carbon dioxide indicates global climate change. Some plants grow more efficiently with different levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and may grow to dominate other plants. Nitrogen uptake is important because nitrogen is found in fertilizer, Wilsey said.

“Fertilizer can cause diversity to decline because it causes some plants to grow more rapidly and crowd out other species,” Moloney said.

Wilsey is no stranger to grassland research. He has studied in various places in the world and did his doctorate degree research on the effects of increasing levels of carbon dioxide levels in the air on grasslands.

“[Wilsey] is very knowledgeable in his field,” Martin said. “My experience with him has been very helpful.”