A VEGETATION ANALYSIS OF A PIMPLED PRAIRIE IN NORTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA

The effect of pimple mound microrelief on the vegetation of a tall grass prairie was considered. Taxonomic analysis of the vegetation affirmed the observation that mound and intermounds support communities with differing species composition. The difference in the percent cover by living vegetation on mounds and intermounds was determined not to be statistically significant. The physical composition of the soil in the two regions was found to be similar. Two factors are suggested as influencing the differences in mound and intermound vegetation: that mound soils can provide more available water to plants than can intermound soils, and that mounds, but not intermounds, contain the burrows of small mammals and are modified by their presence.