Arid old-field restoration: Native perennial grasses suppress weeds and erosion, but also suppress native shrubs

Porensky, Lauren M.; Leger, Elizabeth A.; Davison, Jay; Miller, W. W.; Goergen, Erin M.; Espeland, Erin K.; Carroll-Moore, Erin M.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2013.11.026

Cited by 44 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…These rates match well with rates documented in southeastern Montana (estimated at 138 yr, Cooper Fig. Slow recovery of A. tridentata may be driven in part by fast recovery of fire-resistant understory plants, which create biotic resistance (Porensky et al 2014, Shiponeni et al 2014). Complex effects of fire on the absolute percent cover of different functional groups.…”

Section: Overstorysupporting

confidence: 83%

Plant community responses to historical wildfire in a shrubland–grassland ecotone reveal hybrid disturbance response

Porensky¹,

Derner

Pellatz³

2018

Ecosphere

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Citation: Porensky, L. M., J. D. Derner, and D. W. Pellatz. 2018. Plant community responses to historical wildfire in a shrubland-grassland ecotone reveal hybrid disturbance response. Ecosphere 9(8):Abstract. Most ecotones include structural and taxonomic elements from both adjacent communities, but it remains unclear how these elements function and interact within ecotones. We investigated long-term plant community responses to wildfire in a 7000-km 2 ecotone between mixed-grass prairie and sagebrush steppe ecosystems, which have dramatically different historical fire regimes. We asked whether plant community responses to wildfire in the ecotone were more similar to mixed-grass prairie, sagebrush steppe, or a hybrid of these two. We sampled plant community composition at 70 pairs of transects located inside and outside of wildfires that burned from 1937 to 2012. We determined whether (1) wildfires predicted plant community composition, (2) plant community response to fire varied based on abiotic factors, and (3) effects of wildfire varied based on time since fire. Plant community responses to wildfire did not vary substantially across the study region, despite continuous plant community variation in response to abiotic factors. Overstory responses were characteristic of sagebrush steppe. Burned transects had <10% as much big sagebrush cover as unburned transects, and cover did not increase with time since fire. In contrast, understory plant community responses to fire were similar to mixed-grass prairie. Burned sites had high forb cover in the short term and perennial grass cover in the long term. Within an ecotone, different components of the plant community can maintain functional fidelity to their home ecosystems, despite being spatially juxtaposed. The idea of hybrid disturbance response may provide new opportunities for targeted management within ecotones.

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Section: Overstorysupporting

confidence: 83%

Plant community responses to historical wildfire in a shrubland–grassland ecotone reveal hybrid disturbance response

Porensky¹,

Derner

Pellatz³

2018

Ecosphere

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“…The need for shrub restoration is becoming increasingly recognized in Europe (Medina‐Roldán et al ), Africa (Linstadter & Baumann ), Australia (Wong et al ), North America (Davies et al ), and Asia (Li et al ), because many shrubs are keystone species that provide critical ecosystem services (Prevéy et al ; Fonseca et al ; van Zonneveld et al ). Shrub restoration in arid and semi‐arid rangelands is hindered by water stress, invasive species, and erosion (Porensky et al ). In North America, antelope bitterbrush ( Purshia tridentata Pursh DC) is often a priority for restoration because it serves as a keystone species that is important to wildlife.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy microsite effect on the survival of bitterbrush outplantings after prescribed fire: capitalizing on spatial variability to improve restoration

Davies

Boyd

Bates

et al. 2017

Restoration Ecology

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Restoration of shrubs in arid and semi‐arid rangelands is hampered by low success rates. Planting shrub seedlings is a method used to improve success in these rangelands; however, it is expensive and labor intensive. The efficiency of shrub restoration could be improved by identifying microsites where shrub survival is greater. Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata Pursh DC) is an important shrub to wildlife that has declined because of conifer encroachment, excessive defoliation, wildfires, and low recruitment. We investigated planting bitterbrush seedlings in western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis ssp. occidentalis Hook) encroached shrublands after prescribed fire was used to control trees. Bitterbrush seedlings were planted in under (canopy) and between (interspace) former juniper canopies at five blocks and evaluated for three growing seasons. Bitterbrush survival was greater than 50% in the former canopy, but only 5% in the interspace microsite by the third growing season. Growth of bitterbrush was also greater in the former canopy compared with the interspace, potentially due to markedly less perennial vegetation in this microsite. Exotic annual grasses and annual forbs became prevalent in the former canopy in the second and third growing season, suggesting that soil resource availability was greater in this microsite. These results suggest that restoration success will vary by specific locations within a burned landscape and that this variability can be used to improve restoration efficiency. In this situation, bitterbrush restoration can be improved by planting seedlings in former canopy compared with interspace microsites.

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“…Although CS among SF, SW, and NW was moderately similar, the dominated plant species were different, suggesting that restoration should combine CS and I iv to determine target plant composition. The survey suggests that land will have lower soil water content and greater soil temperature compared with less degraded land so that short-term irrigation might be useful if it can be implemented to infiltrate at least 60 cm into the soil, because irrigation can increase long-term grass establishment and reduce erosion [23], and diffuse salinity. Although Szitár et al [69] found that altered soil conditions are unlikely to pose a major limitation to vegetation recovery and restoration measures do not need to bother with soil remediation, the high mean pH value (>8) may have affected plant survival [52] because it leads to a reduced availability of micronutrients that are important for plant growth [46].…”

Section: (S) Polygonum Macrophyllum (P)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Native plant species, which become fine-tuned to their local environments through natural selection, can rapidly recolonize a denuded landscape [20][21][22] and help maintain the diversity and stability of vegetative communities [5], suppress weeds and reduce erosion [23], and increase nutrient concentrations (P, N, K) and rain/water use efficiency, of which the latter is a main indicator for ecosystem productivity [24][25]. The use of native plant species during rehabilitation will also contribute to the aesthetic value of the habitat, as well as benefiting belowground ecosystems [26], minimizing resource depletion [27], ameliorating the consequences of fragmentation on populations of valuable plant species [28], attracting more visitors on flower [29], and increasing the abundance of small mammals as well as carnivorous prey selection species [30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Slope Aspect on Plant Community Composition and its Implications for Restoration of a Chinese Mountain Range

Qin¹,

Holden²,

Feng³

et al. 2017

Pol. J. Environ. Stud.

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Excessive human disturbance (e.g., overgrazing, deforestation) has degraded the environment in the Qilian Mountains in China. Vegetative restoration is likely to be a crucial tool to restore these biologically significant habitats, but it is impossible to achieve this goal if the baseline plant community composition and its variation with local environmental conditions were not understood fully. To assess plant community composition by slope aspect, four different aspects -south-facing slope (SF), southwest-facing slope (SW), northwest-facing slope (NW), and north-facing slope (NF) -were surveyed on three almost non-degraded mountains. The results showed that each slope aspect has different abiotic environments. From SF to NF, soil water content has an increasing trend, but it shows no difference between SF and SW; and daily soil temperature and pH have a decreasing trend, while the former shows no difference between SF and SW, and SW and NW; and the latter shows no difference between SW and NW; and soil organic carbon was significantly increased, but soil bulk density was significantly decreased. Herbaceous plants were dominant on SF, SW, and NW, and trees (Picea crassifolia) were dominant on NF. From SF to NW, the dominant herbaceous plants were Agropyron cristatum and Stipa grandis, Agropyron cristatum and Carex aridula, and Kobresia humilis and Carex crebra, respectively, while on NF they were Carex spp. and Polygonum macrophyllum. The baseline survey points to the need to consider underlying patterns in abiotic conditions when planning restoration programs in these degraded mountain habitats, and to select native plants similar to the original vegetation. The survey provides a vital milestone for the development of policy-based funding initiatives and for ongoing vegetation monitoring during restoration to assess if these vegetative targets have been met.

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Arid old-field restoration: Native perennial grasses suppress weeds and erosion, but also suppress native shrubs

Cited by 44 publications

References 46 publications

Plant community responses to historical wildfire in a shrubland–grassland ecotone reveal hybrid disturbance response

Plant community responses to historical wildfire in a shrubland–grassland ecotone reveal hybrid disturbance response

Legacy microsite effect on the survival of bitterbrush outplantings after prescribed fire: capitalizing on spatial variability to improve restoration

Influence of Slope Aspect on Plant Community Composition and its Implications for Restoration of a Chinese Mountain Range

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