Effects of Drought, Dust, and Intensity of Grazing on Cover and Yield of Short‐Grass Pastures

Injury and Death or Recovery of Trees in Prairie Climate

“…This interval was necessary, as has been shown by Weaver and Albertson (1944), to moisten the parched soil. Over much of the mixed prairie water penetration was confined to a depth of 3 feet even in 1941.…”

“…Throughout the years of drought while the writers were studying the destruction of grassland (Weaver & Albertsoii 1936, 1940, Albertson & Weaver 1942, and finally its recovery (Weaver & Alhertson 1943, considerable attention was given to the losses of both native and planted trees and shrubs. Because of the arduous and extensive work on grassland, time for a record of losses of trees was limited.…”

Biogeomorphic model of dunefield activation and stabilization on the northern Great Plains

“…This is particularly prevalent on the central and northern Great Plains where wind strength (i.e., transport capacity) is not considered a limiting factor (Muhs and Wolfe, 1999). Previous studies on the Great Plains have documented significant reductions in vegetation cover during the subdecadal drought of the 1930s (Weaver and Albertson, 1936;Albertson and Weaver, 1944;Tomanek and Hulett, 1971) and have inferred an increase in sand dune activity through partial activation (Muhs et al, 1997b;Muhs, 1998). These observations suggest a relatively short reaction time to this drought and, furthermore, may define an activation threshold for these dune systems.…”

Mapping species diversity patterns in the Kansas shortgrass region by integrating remote sensing and vegetation analysis

“…The individual bands and the band transforms were evaluated by regression analysis for their utility in predicting plant diversity. Stepwise multiple regression Buchloë dactyloides increases in abundance with increasing grazing pressure (Albertson & Weaver 1944;Tomanek 1948;Tomanek & Albertson 1957). The other principal dominant grass, Bouteloua gracilis, averaged 30% cover with significantly greater abundance on high quality grasslands (Table4).…”

“…The other principal dominant grass, Bouteloua gracilis, averaged 30% cover with significantly greater abundance on high quality grasslands (Table4). Bouteloua gracilis has been found to increase with light to moderate grazing pressure (Albertson & Weaver 1944), but declined with heavy grazing (Tomanek & Albertson 1957;Klipple & Costello 1960). This pattern of decreasing species cover on the low quality grasslands holds for eleven other widespread species, including the two most common forbs, Ratibida columnifera and Psoralea tenuiflora (Table 4).…”