Article
Application of Ecological Site information to transformative changes on Great Basin sagebrush rangelands
View article. The utility of ecological site descriptions (ESD) in the management of rangelands hinges on their ability to characterize and predict plant community change, the associated ecological consequences, and ecosystem responsiveness to management. We demonstrate how enhancement of ESDs with key ecohydrologic information can aid predictions of ecosystem response and targeting of conservation practices…
Read MoreMeasuring resilience, resistance to aid in range restoration
View article. Two concepts that help scientists understand the vulnerability of the land are: resilience and resistance. Rating a place based on resilience and resistance gives managers information about how it will respond to disturbances such as wildfire and invasive grasses like cheatgrass as well as how effective management efforts are likely to be (such…
Read MorePinyon and juniper slowly invade sagebrush steppe
View article. Areas that were once scrubbed of their scattered wood by periodic low-intensity fires now burn with blistering wildfires that sterilize the soil and wipe out surviving perennial grasses. These changes have reduced forage, diverted soil water, promoted soil loss, and changed wildlife habitat. There are a lot of unknown factors about how to…
Read MoreLong-term effects of tree expansion and reduction on soil climate in a semiarid ecosystem
View article. We sought to determine the effects of tree expansion, tree reduction treatments, and expansion phase at time of treatment over 12–13 yr post-treatment. Because the effects of tree reduction on vegetation can vary with the soil temperature/moisture regime, we also analyzed differences in soil climate variables between the mesic/aridic-xeric and frigid/xeric regime classifications…
Read MoreUse of auto-germ to model germination timing in the sagebrush-steppe
View article. To demonstrate the capabilities of Auto-Germ, we calculated various germination indices and modeled germination timing for 11 different species, across 6 years, and 10 Artemisia-steppe sites in the Great Basin of North America to identify the planting date required for 50% or more of the simulated population to germinate in spring (1 March…
Read MoreLong-term evidence for fire as an ecohydrologic threshold-reversal mechanism on woodland-encroached sagebrush shrublands
View article. We evaluated whether tree removal by burning can decrease late-succession woodland ecohydrologic resilience by increasing vegetation and ground cover over a 9-year period after fire and whether the soil erosion feedback on late-succession woodlands is reversible by burning. To address these questions, we employed a suite of vegetation and soil measurements and rainfall…
Read MoreInnovation in rangeland monitoring: annual, 30 m, plant functional type percent cover maps for U.S. rangelands, 1984–2017
View article. Innovations in machine learning and cloud-based computing were merged with historical remote sensing and field data to provide the first moderate resolution, annual, percent cover maps of plant functional types across rangeland ecosystems to effectively and efficiently respond to pressing challenges facing conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. We utilized the historical Landsat…
Read MoreSoils mediate the impact of fine woody debris on invasive and native grasses as whole trees are mechanically shredded into firebreaks in pinon-juniper woodlands
View article. To stem wildfires, trees are being mechanically shredded into firebreaks with the resulting fine woody debris (FWD) potentially exerting immense control over soil and plants. We linked FWD-induced changes in microbial activity and nutrient availability to the frequency of Bromus tectorum and three native, perennial grasses across 31 piñon-juniper woodlands, UT, USA. Using…
Read MoreResponse of bird community structure to habitat management in pinyon-juniper woodland-sagebrush ecotones
View article. We used structural equation modeling to develop and statistically test our conceptual model that the current bird assembly at a site is structured primarily by the previous bird community with additional drivers from current and surrounding habitat conditions as well as external regional bird dynamics. Treatment reduced woodland cover by >5% at 80…
Read MorePretreatment tree dominance and conifer removal treatments affect plant succession in sagebrush communities
View article. We prescribed burned or cut juniper (Juniperus spp. L.) and pinyon (Pinus spp. L.) trees at 10 sites across the western United States. We measured vegetation cover and density on untreated and treated plots 3 and 6 yr after treatment across a gradient of pretreatment tree dominance as quantified by the tree dominance…
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