Demographic Changes Drive Woody Plant Cover Trends—An Example from the Great Plains

Berg, Matthew D.; Sorice, Michael G.; Wilcox, Bradford P.; Angerer, Jay P.; Rhodes, E. C.; Fox, William E.

doi:10.1016/j.rama.2015.05.004

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…Measuring place meanings for private lands includes understanding how well it represents a landowner's beliefs about their place (x-axis) and the degree to which they rely on their place to provide the meaning (y-axis) with broader land use preferences and ownership motivations that include rural and natural amenities along with, or perhaps over, the land's production potential (Berg et al, 2015;Brown et al, 2005;Sorice, Kreuter, Wilcox, & Fox III, 2012. Property size in rural rangelands throughout the Southern Great Plains has become increasingly bimodal; there has been an increase in both the number of very large properties through consolidation and in the number of smaller properties through increased subdivision of land (Wilcox et al, 2018).…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

The meaning(s) of place: Identifying the structure of sense of place across a social–ecological landscape

2020

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Sense of place holds promise to understand how people perceive and respond to social and ecological change; however, using this concept to explore vulnerability and adaptation first depends on identifying the multiple ways people define their relationship with a place. We introduce the meaning‐dependence framework to account for the broad array of person–place connections within social–ecological landscapes. We applied this framework to private landowners in the Southern Great Plains of the United States, a working landscape experiencing ecological transformation from grasslands to degraded woodlands. Using a mail survey, we explored the structure of sense of place based on the relationship between place meanings and place attachment. We employed complementary analytical methods: correlation analysis, ordinary least squares regression, and machine learning through a regression tree and random forest. Place meanings explained a large amount of variation in place attachment and were characterized by intercorrelations and interactions. Across analyses, experiential meanings reflecting personal psychological connections to one's land were the predominant drivers of landowners' place attachment. Way of life emerged as a central meaning for understanding sense of place on private lands. The meaning‐dependence framework builds on existing research to account for the multiple ways meanings inform human connections to a place. This framework is broadly applicable to any setting and can capture diverse configurations of person–place relationships and increase the utility of sense of place in social–ecological research. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

The meaning(s) of place: Identifying the structure of sense of place across a social–ecological landscape

2020

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“…Woodland encroachment is another major driver of land cover change within the Great Plains region that arises from anthropogenic alteration of fire regimes (Berg et al, 2015;Engle et al, 2008;Heisler et al, 2003;Twidwell et al, 2013). Woodland encroachment profoundly effects ecological processes ranging from hydrologic cycles (Zou et al, 2015) to fire dynamics (Fuhlendorf et al, 2006;Twidwell et al, 2013;Weir and Scasta, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land cover dynamics influence distribution of breeding birds in the Great Plains, USA

Scholtz

Polo

Fuhlendorf

et al. 2017

Biological Conservation

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Grasslands are one of the most endangered ecosystems globally. Large tracts of grassland in the Great Plains, USA have been converted to cropland since the early 1900s, and woodlands are rapidly encroaching into many grasslands of the region due to changes in land management practices. Changes in the arrangement and proportion of different land cover types can affect biodiversity. We used bird survey data to identify the effect of land cover change on breeding bird ranges within the Great Plains over a 10-year period. Each species was categorized into one of the following habitat guilds: grassland, shrubland, woodland, wetland and generalist. We calculated the proportion of each land cover (including cropland, grassland, woodland, developed, barren, water bodies and wetlands) within a 1.6 km radius of each bird survey starting point. Within an occupancy modeling framework, we estimated colonization and extinction rates for each species and averaged them to the guild level. We also quantified changes in land cover from grassland to other cover types. Results show that grasslands were mostly converted to cropland and woodland, which were accompanied by positive extinction rates for certain grassland species. Extinction rates at the guild level were unrelated to increases in any land cover type, and observed land cover changes largely favored the shrubland guild. Overall, habitat-guild responses show little influence of woodland or cropland expansion at regional scales, although certain species ranges are predicted to decrease with increases in woodland. Future research should consider a finer scaled approach focusing on species-level responses when short-term land cover changes are considered.

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“…Woody plants must escape injury from disturbances in order to pass from the seedling to adult stage (Bond & Midgley, ). Management varies based on differences in landowner motivations and personal histories (Berg et al., ; VanWey, Ostrom, & Meretsky, ). Human infrastructure and increasing fragmentation driven by exurban and urban sprawl may unknowingly promote increased cedar spread from windbreaks by providing refuges for cedar based on the propensity to manage in certain areas and not others (Coppedge, Engle, Fuhlendorf, Masters, & Gregory, ,b; Coppedge et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hoch and Briggs (1999) demonstrate a strong relationship between human populations, anthropogenic features, and woody encroachment. Berg et al (2015) emphasized the importance of human distributions on woody encroachment, revealing that patterns of woody encroachment cannot be explained solely by ecological drivers. Thus, windbreak proximity to coupled social-ecological landscape characteristics can influence woody encroachment from plantings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social–ecological landscape patterns predict woody encroachment from native tree plantings in a temperate grassland

Donovan

Burnett

Bielski

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Afforestation is often viewed as the purposeful planting of trees in historically nonforested grasslands, but an unintended consequence is woody encroachment, which should be considered part of the afforestation process. In North America's temperate grassland biome, Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) is a native species used in tree plantings that aggressively invades in the absence of controlling processes. Cedar is a well‐studied woody encroacher, but little is known about the degree to which cedar windbreaks, which are advocated for in agroforestry programs, are contributing to woody encroachment, what factors are associated with cedar spread from windbreaks, nor where encroachment from windbreaks is occurring in contemporary social–ecological landscapes. We used remotely sensed imagery to identify the presence and pattern of woody encroachment from windbreaks in the Nebraska Sandhills. We used multimodel inference to compare three classes of models representing three hypotheses about factors that could influence cedar spread: (a) windbreak models based on windbreak structure and design elements; (b) abiotic models focused on local environmental conditions; and (c) landscape models characterizing coupled human‐natural features within the broader matrix. Woody encroachment was evident for 23% of sampled windbreaks in the Nebraska Sandhills. Of our candidate models, our inclusive landscape model carried 92% of the model weight. This model indicated that encroachment from windbreaks was more likely near roadways and less likely near farmsteads, other cedar plantings, and waterbodies, highlighting strong social ties to the distribution of woody encroachment from tree plantings across contemporary landscapes. Our model findings indicate where additional investments into cedar control can be prioritized to prevent cedar spread from windbreaks. This approach can serve as a model in other temperate regions to identify where woody encroachment resulting from temperate agroforestry programs is emerging.

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Demographic Changes Drive Woody Plant Cover Trends—An Example from the Great Plains

Cited by 15 publications

References 43 publications

The meaning(s) of place: Identifying the structure of sense of place across a social–ecological landscape

The meaning(s) of place: Identifying the structure of sense of place across a social–ecological landscape

Land cover dynamics influence distribution of breeding birds in the Great Plains, USA

Social–ecological landscape patterns predict woody encroachment from native tree plantings in a temperate grassland

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