Fire and Grazing Influence Site Resistance to Bromus tectorum Through Their Effects on Shrub, Bunchgrass and Biocrust Communities in the Great Basin (USA)

Condon, Lea A.; Pyke, David A.

doi:10.1007/s10021-018-0230-8

Cited by 69 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Biological soil crusts (henceforth biocrusts) refer to some combination of fungi, cyanobacteria, lichens, and/or mosses on the soil surface (Rosentreter et al 2007). As a result, biocrust associations with vegetation structure need to be considered separately from bulk soil hydrologic properties (Belnap 2006, Whitney et al 2017, Condon and Pyke 2018. As a result, biocrust associations with vegetation structure need to be considered separately from bulk soil hydrologic properties (Belnap 2006, Whitney et al 2017, Condon and Pyke 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil characteristics are associated with gradients of big sagebrush canopy structure after disturbance

et al. 2019

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Reestablishing shrub canopy cover after disturbance in semi‐arid ecosystems, such as sagebrush steppe, is essential to provide wildlife habitat and restore ecosystem functioning. While several studies have explored the effects of landscape and climate factors on the success or failure of sagebrush seeding, the influence of soil properties on gradients of shrub canopy structure in successfully seeded areas remains largely unexplored. In this study, we evaluated associations between soil properties and gradients in sagebrush canopy structure in stands that had successfully reestablished after fire and subsequent seeding treatments. Using a dataset collected across the Great Basin, USA, of sagebrush stands that had burned and reestablished between 1986 and 2013, we tested soil depth and texture, soil surface classification, biological soil crusts plus mean historical precipitation, solar heatload, and fire history as modeling variables to explore gradients in sagebrush canopy structure growth in terms of cover, height, and density. Deeper soils were associated with greater sagebrush canopy structure development in terms of plant density and percent cover, coarser textured soils were associated with greater sagebrush cover and density, and more clayey soils were typically associated with greater height. Biological crust presence was also positively associated with enhanced sagebrush canopy growth, but adding more demographically or morphologically explicit descriptions of biocrust communities did not improve explanatory power. Increasing heatload had a negative effect on sagebrush canopy structure growth, and increased mean annual precipitation was only associated with greater sagebrush height. Given that conservation and restoration of the sagebrush steppe ecosystems has become a priority for land managers, the associations we identify between gradients in post‐fire sagebrush canopy structure growth and field‐identifiable soil characteristics may improve planning of land treatments for sagebrush restoration and the understanding of semi‐arid ecosystem functioning and post‐disturbance dynamics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil characteristics are associated with gradients of big sagebrush canopy structure after disturbance

et al. 2019

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“…, Reisner et al. , Condon and Pyke ), the relationship that we identified between burn severity and development is novel. Furthermore, we found an interaction for the same combination of disturbances for forbs, expanding this combined influence to a native functional group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…As with other research, we were unable to quantify all historical and current factors at monitoring sites that influence sagebrush communities, such as grazing (Condon and Pyke ), soil conditions (Bansal and Sheley ), heat load (Reisner et al. ), and multi‐year weather patterns (Pilliod et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Our goal was to both extend analyses for sagebrush community susceptibility to non‐native grass invasion mediated by disturbance and include multiple other disturbances in the analyses (such as Bradley et al. , Condon and Pyke , Mahood and Balch ). Results from this study demonstrate that the consequence of disturbances on functional group cover differs by type and combination of disturbances and climate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire and development influences on sagebrush community plant groups across a climate gradient in northern Nevada

et al. 2019

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The sagebrush biome covers much of the western United States yet is at risk from ongoing disturbances. Physical disturbances such as fire often overcome the resistance of sagebrush communities to biological disturbances such as invasion by non‐native species, but the impact of burn severity or combined disturbance types on sagebrush community composition remains unclear. We examined the relationship between native functional groups and non‐native annual grass cover to the number of fires, burn severity, anthropogenic development, and vegetation treatments in northern Nevada, USA. We used Bureau of Land Management vegetation monitoring plots and existing climate, fire, and vegetation treatment databases to explore relationships using beta regression. After accounting for mean annual precipitation and temperature, and elevation, we quantified functional group mean cover related to levels of burn severity, numbers of fires, development, and vegetation treatments. Native herbaceous (grass and forb) groups were resilient to fire, but fire caused large declines in shrub and sagebrush cover. Non‐native annual grass cover was associated with higher burn severity and the first fire at a site. We did not find evidence that post‐fire restoration treatments were associated with increased native cover or decreased non‐native cover. However, shrub control and soil disturbing treatments (discing and chaining) were associated with decreased native perennial grass cover and increased non‐native annual grass cover. Functional groups displayed varying patterns related to anthropogenic development and fire. For example, development had a larger impact on non‐native cover at lower levels of burn severity, whereas forbs increased following fire only at lower levels of development. Although in some cases sagebrush communities showed resilience to disturbance, our results showed resistance to invasion by non‐native annual grasses can be overcome by combinations of disturbances at lower levels or by severe events.

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“…3, 4), a pattern which may be a product of competitive interactions. Certain native perennial grass species, including western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii) and Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), may expand after a fire due to competitive release from sagebrush, which recovers more slowly (Vale 1974, Cooper et al 2011, Davies et al 2012, Taylor et al 2014, Ellsworth et al 2016, Shinneman and McIlroy 2016, Ellsworth and Kauffman 2017, Mitchell et al 2017, Condon and Pyke 2018. Certain native perennial grass species, including western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii) and Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), may expand after a fire due to competitive release from sagebrush, which recovers more slowly (Vale 1974, Cooper et al 2011, Davies et al 2012, Taylor et al 2014, Ellsworth et al 2016, Shinneman and McIlroy 2016, Ellsworth and Kauffman 2017, Mitchell et al 2017, Condon and Pyke 2018.…”

Section: Historical Composition As a Driver Of Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Pre‐fire vegetation drives post‐fire outcomes in sagebrush ecosystems: evidence from field and remote sensing data

et al. 2019

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Understanding the factors that influence vegetation responses to disturbance is important because vegetation is the foundation of food resources, wildlife habitat, and ecosystem properties and processes. We integrated vegetation cover data derived from field plots and remotely sensed Landsat images in two focal areas over a 37-yr period to investigate how historical changes to community composition influence contemporary responses of vegetation to fire in sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin. Our objectives were (1) to quantify the magnitude and direction of change in the cover of native and exotic plant functional groups in relation to their exposure to fire; (2) to relate plant community changes to their historical composition, exposure to fire, and environmental conditions; and (3) to test for consistency of trends revealed by vegetation cover data derived from field plots and Landsat images. Historical (1979Historical ( -1981 field data originated from 298 locations, Landsat-derived data and contemporary (2011-2016) field data originated from 448 locations, and an expanded set of locations were included in some analyses of Landsat-derived data. We found that areas burned by fire since the 1980s had higher annual herbaceous cover than unburned areas both historically and contemporarily. Models revealed a significant interaction between historical community composition and exposure to fire, which suggests that plots with historically high herbaceous cover were more susceptible to burning. Trends revealed by field and Landsat-derived cover data were only partially consistent, potentially due in part to methods used to predict cover values from Landsat images, and the time period over which each data set was collected. Our results suggest that burned areas historically occupied by sagebrush-dominated plant communities may have been invaded by exotic annuals prior to burning, possibly because of prior land uses, and after burning, have now transitioned to a persistent herbaceous-dominated state. This type of state transition has important consequences for forage quality, wildlife habitat, soil nutrients, and future disturbances, such as drought and wildfire.

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Fire and Grazing Influence Site Resistance to Bromus tectorum Through Their Effects on Shrub, Bunchgrass and Biocrust Communities in the Great Basin (USA)

Cited by 69 publications

References 57 publications

Soil characteristics are associated with gradients of big sagebrush canopy structure after disturbance

Soil characteristics are associated with gradients of big sagebrush canopy structure after disturbance

Fire and development influences on sagebrush community plant groups across a climate gradient in northern Nevada

Pre‐fire vegetation drives post‐fire outcomes in sagebrush ecosystems: evidence from field and remote sensing data

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