Pasture management intensity, livestock grazing and prescribed fire are three widespread agricultural practices that affect small, isolated wetlands, but few studies have investigated their individual and interactive effects. Pasture management intensity refers to the degree of human alteration of grassland, ranging from intensively managed pastures planted with introduced forage, fertilizer/lime additions and artificial drainage to semi-natural pastures with mixed native and non-native vegetation, no fertilizer/lime additions and little or no artificial drainage. We examined individual and interactive effects of these three agricultural practices on individual, isolated wetlands using a replicated, full-factorial experiment on 40 entire wetlands in south Florida, USA. Wetlands were embedded in two pasture management intensities: intensively managed and semi-natural. After three years of treatment initiation, vegetation of wetlands released from grazing and unburned embedded in semi-natural pastures had significantly lower evenness and coefficient of conservatism scores compared to wetlands released from grazing and burned, grazed unburned wetlands and grazed burned wetlands in the same pasture management intensity. For wetlands embedded in intensively managed pastures, evenness and coefficient of conservatism scores did not differ among treatments. Release from grazing increased abundance of the native, weedy herb, Eupatorium capillifolium. Grazing interacted with prescribed fire to affect shrub abundance and non-native richness; relative abundance of shrubs and non-native richness were greater in wetlands released from grazing and burned and did not differ among burn treatments in grazed wetlands. Interactive effects, especially three-way interactions, were uncommon and not as important as differences between the two pasture management intensities. Synthesis and applications. Vegetation diversity and floristic quality of wetlands embedded in intensively managed pastures resisted common restoration management techniques such as release from grazing and prescribed fire, at least in the short term. In contrast, removing all top-down disturbances from wetlands embedded in semi-natural grasslands can negatively affect vegetation species diversity and floristic quality. Future studies should examine how intensity and seasonality of grazing and prescribed fire affect wetland vegetation, and track long-term responses to evaluate lag effects.

wetland plant richness and diversity_fire and grazingThis file contains plant species richness and diversity metrics from forty wetlands sampled over four years, 2006-2009. These are response variables for a factorial experimental manipulating fire and grazing management on wetlands embedded in different pasture management intensities.usda richness diversity.csvwetland_richness_diversity_VariablenamesFull variable names and definitions for richness and diversity datasetUSDA_richness_diversity_Variablenames.csvWetlandPlant_FunctionalGroupThese data include functional group (graminoids, palatable grasses, shrubs, forbs, natives, exotics, Eupatorium capillifolium) relative frequency and coefficient of conservatism scores (a measure of floristic quality) in forty wetlands sampled over a four year experiment manipulating grazing and fire management of wetlands embedded in two different management intensities. The first year is a pre-treatment year.USDA_FunctionalGroup.csvUSDA_FunctionalGroup_VariablenamesThis file contains the full variable names for the Wetland Functional Group data set.