Written by Michelle Homann

Posted February 2025

Over the summer, members of the Damschen lab completed our first full field season supported by Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) funding. Aside from our annual plant community composition surveys, we focused on seedling survival for underrepresented prairie plant species during the spring and summer months. Our goal was to better understand how species that were previously sown, but not currently present in the plant community, were being affected by fire timing and winter climate change during early life stages. We directly sowed seeds into our experimental plots where we apply disturbance treatments (fall burn, spring burn, fall mow, or undisturbed) and manipulate snow depth (reduced snow, additional snow, or ambient). Additionally, we placed mesh tea bags full of seeds into each plot with the intention of letting seeds cold stratify in the field over winter before a conducting a laboratory-controlled germination trial. In a not-so-surprising turn of events, many of the bags had been torn open by ground squirrels or chewed into by insects by early spring. We shifted gears, collecting intact and damaged tea bags and counting the number of seeds of each species that remained. We now not only have data regarding germination and survival of sown seeds, but also information about whether disturbance type and timing or winter climate change affect the likelihood of seeds being eaten!

(above) Marked seedlings begin growing true leaves within an experimental plot in which researchers are following seed germination and establishment in a new overseeding component of our study. Photo by M.A. Homann

In addition to our mammal and insect guests this summer, we also welcomed a visit from Midwest CASC Tribal Research Experience for Undergraduates interns program, which is hosted by the College of Menominee Nation’s Sustainable Development Institute. Interns accompanied graduate researcher, Michelle Homann, and The Prairie Enthusiasts Mounds View Grassland site steward, Rich Henderson, on a hike through restored sections of the 830 acre preserve. The group asked questions about designing experiments and conducting climate change research and shared perspectives about restoration and connections to their plant relatives.

(above) Midwest CASC Tribal Research Experience for Undergraduates students visit our field site, Mounds View Grassland, in Iowa county, Wisconsin, with The Prairie Enthusiasts site steward Rich Henderson (right), one of our management partners. Photo by M.A. Homann.

Damschen lab members also held a site visit with some of our land management partners from Adaptive Restoration, the Prairie Enthusiasts, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to discuss our project findings to date, reflect on how these results interface with management decision making, and solicit their ideas on what more scientific information is needed to guide future decisions. Lab members have made plans to collect above-ground biomass data in our subplots next summer at our partners’ suggestion. We also shared a draft of a research brief with some key takeaways from the latest research being conducted at Mounds View Grassland and incorporated their feedback on interpretation in the draft being prepared for broader dissemination. Keep an eye out for the finalized brief this spring!


Looking forward: Fall disturbance treatments have been applied, and we’ve done one snow manipulation this winter to model reduced snowfall projected under future climate change. We are looking forward to the rest of winter in hopes that we will get more snowfall than in the past few years. Studying climate change as it happens can be a challenge! Luckily, we have collected plant community data for the past 8 years and counting, which helps us to understand plant community change over time in concert with contemporary climate change.

Stay tuned for more results from this work! We will be sharing blog posts here (on our website) biannually throughout the next few years to keep you updated on our research progress, highlight new findings and stellar students, and provide access to communication materials on best management practices.