Colonization and Establishment of Missouri Prairie Plants on Artificial Soil Disturbances. Ii. Detecting Small‐scale Plant‐to‐plant Interactions and Separating Disturbance From Resource Provision

We investigated whether seedlings and shoots interacted with one another while colonizing small soil disturbances in a tall‐grass prairie in Missouri. Specifically, we tested for density dependence of longevity and whether seedlings responded to the creation of a disturbance and/or the provision of an uncolonized resource. There was little evidence of density‐dependent mortality among either seedlings or vegetative shoots. There were essentially no differences in either colonization or mortality of seedlings between disturbances with a new, competition‐free resource and disturbances without a new resource. Excluding vegetative invaders from a site by means of a polyvinylchloride pipe did not prompt a greater number of seedlings to arise or survive. These results substantiated a noninteractive portrayal of colonization. Individuals of seedlings and shoots appeared and disappeared in a fashion largely independent of one another.