Posts Tagged ‘Climate’
Wet‑thermal time and plant available water in the seedbeds and root zones across the sagebrush steppe of the Great Basin
View dissertation. In an effort to help improve plant materials selection and to evaluate sites potential revegetation, we have worked toward developing methodology to predict germination and root growth based on site specific soil moisture and temperature conditions. First, we characterized the seedbed environment of 24 sagebrush steppe sites throughout the Intermountain West to determine…
Read MoreWestern juniper field guide: Asking the right questions to select appropriate management actions
View field guide. This guide provides a set of tools that will help field biologists, land managers, and private landowners conduct rapid qualitative field assessments that address the kind of site and its current state. These tools include a list of questions to be addressed and a series of photographs, keys, tables, and figures to…
Read MoreRestoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat – Part 3: Site level restoration decisions
View guide. This site-level tool is written so it might be used in conjunction with Part 2, landscape-level decision tool of the handbook on restoration of sagebrush steppe ecosystems (Pyke, Knick, and others, 2015) or as a stand-alone tool for any site within the sagebrush steppe. This tool relies on user understanding of a land…
Read MoreThe Landscape Similarity Toolbox: new tools for optimizing the location of control sites in experimental studies
View article. Large-scale manipulative experiments are critically important for linking ecological theory with land management at a relevant spatial scale. Statistically powerful inferential approaches such as the before-after-control-impact design involve pairing a small number of treatment sites with control sites of analogous ecological structure and landscape context. Pairing treatment and control sites that are as…
Read MoreTree reduction and debris From mastication of Utah juniper alter the soil climate in sagebrush steppe
View article. We determined the effects of tree reduction and soil cover in the forms of tree mounds and masticated debris on hourly soil water potential and soil temperature at 1–30 cm soil depth. Measurements were made in masticated and untreated areas at three sites in the western Utah portion of the Great Basin. Cumulative…
Read MoreResilience to stress and disturbance, and resistance to Bromus tectorum invasion in cold desert shrublands
View article. Cold desert shrublands occur over strong environmental gradients and exhibit significant differences in resilience and resistance. They provide an excellent opportunity to increase our understanding of these concepts. Herein, we examine a series of linked questions about (a) ecosystem attributes that determine resilience and resistance along environmental gradients, (b) effects of disturbances like…
Read MoreResilience and resistance of sagebrush ecosystems: Implications for state and transition models and management treatments
View article. We used Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project data to test predictions on effects of fire vs. mechanical treatments on resilience and resistance for three site types exhibiting cheatgrass invasion and/or pinon and juniper expansion: 1) warm and dry Wyoming big sagebrush (WY shrub); 2) warm and moist Wyoming big sagebrush (WY PJ); and…
Read MoreVegetation, hydrologic, and erosion responses of sagebrush steppe 9 yr following mechanical tree removal
View article. Our results indicate improved hydrologic function through sagebrush steppe vegetation recruitment after mechanical tree removal on mid- to late-succession woodlands can require more than 9 yr. We anticipate intercanopy runoff and erosion rates will decrease over time at both sites as shrub and grass cover continue to increase, but follow-up tree removal will…
Read MoreResilience and resistance in sagebrush ecosystems are associated with seasonal soil temperature and water availability
View article. Sagebrush ecosystem resilience to wildfire and resistance to cheatgrass depend on climatic conditions and abundance of perennial herbaceous species that compete with cheatgrass. In this study, we used longer-term data to evaluate the relationships among soil climate conditions, perennial herbaceous cover, and cheatgrass cover following fuel management treatments across the environmental gradients that…
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…
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