Before there were farms in southwest Michigan, there were prairies.
Before there were farms in southwest Michigan, there were prairies. For thousands of years, tall grass prairies stood undisturbed until European settlers turned the rich, highly productive soils to agriculture.
Today, tall grass prairies East of the Mississippi are virtually extinct.
But some landowners want to return land throughout the Midwest to its incredibly deep roots, converting abandoned, depleted and fallow agricultural fields to native prairie—with varying degrees of success.
Michigan State University’s Lars Brudvig, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology, and former MSU graduate student Anna Funk investigated fields of data going back 20 years to find out why some replanted prairies are healthier than others. Their research is published in “Scientific Reports.”
Read more at Michigan State University
Image: A restored prairie with both native and weedy species. Credit: Lars Brudvig
