SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SOIL CHARACTERISTICS IN RESTORED AND NATIVE PRAIRIE ECOSYSTEMS OF ILLINOIS

Tallgrass prairies comprise a vanishing ecosystem, but one that is essential to the development and preservation of Midwestern soils. Prairie restoration activities at the Green Oaks Biological Field Station in Knox County, IL, began in 1965, and have since expanded to include several individual restorations. The field station also preserves a small native prairie that was not impacted by the mid-20^th-century strip mining or agriculture that altered the landscape in areas that are now restored to tallgrass prairie ecosystems. Given the variation in the onset of different prairie restoration activities at the field station, Green Oaks provides an excellent natural laboratory to investigate the response of soils to prairie development over time. The current study investigates spatial variation in the pH, A Horizon depth, and organic matter content across similar areas in two different prairies: one restored prairie and one native, undisturbed prairie. Spatial analysis of these soil characteristics provide a measure of natural variation within a recovering landscape but also allow us to determine which soil measurements might differentiate between native vs. more recent prairie development. Understanding the rate at which restored prairie soil systems begin to resemble those of untouched prairies may inform the process of prairie restoration and provide evidence for its importance to Midwestern landscapes.