Posts Tagged ‘Nonnative species’
Guide to vegetation treatment costs for land management in the Great Basin region
View fact sheet. High and low costs represent those commonly reported by SageSTEP collaborators and the NRCS in 2010 and 2011. Costs reported here are meant to provide a starting point only and should be verified through additional research. Many of these treatments are eligible for cost share assistance through the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives…
Read MoreAn introduction to the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP): Fire science research to inform land management decision
View factsheet. Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project, known as SageSTEP, is an interdisciplinary, five-year research program that is exploring ways to improve the health of sagebrush rangelands across the Great Basin. The project is funded by the federal government’s Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) and is a collaborative effort among five universities, six federal agencies,…
Read MoreSageSTEP: A model collaboration for land managers
View factsheet. Public land managers in the Great Basin aim to maintain and restore healthy ecosystems. Climate change, private development pressures, and invasive plants are just a few of the challenges they face. Without regional collaboration, stewardship of public lands can be expensive and ineffective. SageSTEP (Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project) is a model collaborative…
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 MoreStress-gradient hypothesis explains annual grass invasion and regime shifts in arid North American sagebrush steppe ecosystems
View article. Cattle herbivory, a novel disturbance and selective force, was a significant component of two overlapping stress gradients most strongly associated with observed shifts in interactions. Facilitation and competition were strongest and most frequent at the highest and lowest stress levels along both gradients, respectively. Contrasting ecological optima among native and non-native beneficiaries led…
Read MoreReslience to stress and disturbance and resistance to Bromus tectorum L. invasion in cold desert shrublands of western North America
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 MoreConditions favoring Bromus tectorum dominance of endangered sagebrush steppe ecosystems
View article. Grazing exacerbates Bromus tectorum dominance in one of North America’s most endangered ecosystems by adversely impacting key mechanisms mediating resistance to invasion. If the goal is to conserve and restore resistance of these systems, managers should consider maintaining or restoring: (i) high bunchgrass cover and structure characterized by spatially dispersed bunchgrasses and small…
Read MoreUsing germination prediction to inform seeding potential: II. Comparison of germination predictions for cheatgrass and potential revegetation species in the Great Basin, USA
View article. Germination models predict germination timing under seedbed water potential and temperature conditions. Using a wet thermal time model for germination prediction, we estimated progress toward germination (PTG) of 31 seedlots (10 species) as a function of hourly seedbed temperature (>0 °C) when soils were above a water potential of −1.5 MPa. Seasonally-summed progress…
Read MoreRanching, invasive annual grasses, and the external costs of wildfire in Great Basin: A stochastic dynamic programming approach
View conference proceeding. The spread of invasive annual grasses and resulting escalation of wildfire frequency and severity pose a significant and growing threat to the economic and ecological viability of the rangelands in the Great Basin. While private ranchers have the option to limit the severity of wildfires through fuels removal treatments, few ranchers engage…
Read MoreFire, plant invasions, and erosion events on western rangelands
View article. Millions of hectares of rangeland in the western United States have been invaded by annual and woody plants that have increased the role of wildland fire. Altered fire regimes pose significant implications for runoff and erosion. In this paper we synthesize what is known about fire impacts on rangeland hydrology and erosion, and…
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