Restoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat—Part 3. Site level restoration decisions

Pyke, David A.; Knick, Steven T.; Chambers, Jeanne C.; Pellant, Mike; Miller, Richard F.; Beck, Jeffrey L.; Doescher, Paul S.; Schupp, Eugene W.; Roundy, Bruce A.; Brunson, Mark W.; McIver, James D.

doi:10.3133/cir1426

Cited by 18 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…(), and Pyke et al. (). This model associates cooler soil temperature and wetter soil moisture regimes with greater resilience and resistance of sagebrush ecosystems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience and resistance in sagebrush ecosystems are associated with seasonal soil temperature and water availability

et al. 2018

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Invasion and dominance of exotic grasses and increased fire frequency threaten native ecosystems worldwide. In the Great Basin region of the western United States, woody and herbaceous fuel treatments are implemented to decrease the effects of wildfire and increase sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to exotic annual grasses. High cover of the exotic annual cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) after treatments increases fine fuels, which in turn increases the risk of passing over a biotic threshold to a state of increased wildfire frequency and conversion to cheatgrass dominance. Sagebrush ecosystem resilience to wildfire and resistance to cheatgrass depend on climatic conditions and abundance of perennial herbaceous species that compete with cheatgrass. In this study, we used longer‐term data to evaluate the relationships among soil climate conditions, perennial herbaceous cover, and cheatgrass cover following fuel management treatments across the environmental gradients that characterize sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin. We examined the effects of woody and herbaceous fuel treatments on soil temperature, soil water availability (13–30 and 50 cm depths), and native and exotic plant cover on six sagebrush sites lacking piñon (Pinus spp.) or juniper (Juniperus spp.) tree expansion and 11 sagebrush sites with tree expansion. Both prescribed fire and mechanical treatments increased soil water availability on woodland sites and perennial herbaceous cover on some woodland and sagebrush sites. Prescribed fire also slightly increased soil temperatures and especially increased cheatgrass cover compared to no treatment and mechanical treatments on most sites. Non‐metric dimensional scaling ordination and decision tree partition analysis indicated that sites with warmer late springs and warmer and wetter falls had higher cover of cheatgrass. Sites with wetter winters and early springs (March–April) had higher cover of perennial herbs. Our findings suggest that site resistance to cheatgrass after fire and fuel control treatments decreases with a warmer and drier climate. This emphasizes the need for management actions to maintain and enhance perennial herb cover, such as implementing appropriate grazing management, and revegetating sites that have low abundance of perennial herbs in conjunction with fuel control treatments.

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“…(), and Pyke et al. (). This model associates cooler soil temperature and wetter soil moisture regimes with greater resilience and resistance of sagebrush ecosystems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience and resistance in sagebrush ecosystems are associated with seasonal soil temperature and water availability

et al. 2018

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“…Understanding the effects of landscape gradients on sagebrush canopy growth is essential as practitioners and land managers navigate a complex decision-making process that must leverage rehabilitation goals against available resources and ecological status of the areas before and after fire (for more explicit descriptions of the planning process and potential limitations, see Pyke et al 2015aPyke et al , b, 2017. The potential to predict areas of greater canopy structure growth based on soil properties has important implications for understanding changing ecological landscapes in semi-arid regions and for management given the availability of soil taxonomic maps.…”

Section: Study Implications and Future Considerationsmentioning

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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“…, Pyke et al. ). Treatment areas that provided high ecological benefits per unit cost to Sage‐grouse also matched reasonably well with underlying ecosystem traits that enhance RR (i.e., areas with cool/cold and moist soils).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Pyke et al. ). These increases in resilience may be especially important in low RR habitats that often fail to recover following wildfire and comprise a disproportionate amount of the habitat available to Sage‐grouse in the Bi‐State (Appendix : Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the sagebrush community is still intact and has low susceptibility to type conversion to invasive annual grasses following application of low disturbance treatments used to remove Phase 1 trees (Chambers et al 2014b). Also, if pretreatment cover of perennial grass is low and soil disturbance occurs following tree-removal, resistance to annual grass invasion in low RR areas could be bolstered by seeding or transplanting locally adapted perennials grasses and forbs , Davies et al 2011, Miller et al 2014, Pyke et al 2017. Treatment areas that provided high ecological benefits per FIG.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A conservation planning tool for Greater Sage‐grouse using indices of species distribution, resilience, and resistance

Ricca

Coates

Gustafson

et al. 2018

Ecological Applications

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Managers require quantitative yet tractable tools that identify areas for restoration yielding effective benefits for targeted wildlife species and the ecosystems they inhabit. As a contemporary example of high national significance for conservation, the persistence of Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in the Great Basin is compromised by strongly interacting stressors of conifer expansion, annual grass invasion, and more frequent wildfires occurring in sagebrush ecosystems. Associated restoration treatments to a sagebrush-dominated state are often costly and may yield relatively little ecological benefit to sage-grouse if implemented without estimating how Sage-grouse may respond to treatments, or do not consider underlying processes influencing sagebrush ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive species. Here, we describe example applications of a spatially explicit conservation planning tool (CPT) to inform prioritization of: (1) removal of conifers (i.e., pinyon-juniper); and (2) wildfire restoration aimed at improving habitat conditions for the Bi-State Distinct Population Segment of Sage-grouse along the California-Nevada state line. The CPT measures ecological benefits to sage-grouse for a given management action through a composite index comprised of resource selection functions and estimates of abundance and space use. For pinyon-juniper removal, we simulated changes in land-cover composition following the removal of sparse trees with intact understories, and ranked treatments on the basis of changes in ecological benefits per dollar-unit of cost. For wildfire restoration, we formulated a conditional model to simulate scenarios for land cover changes (e.g., sagebrush to annual grass) given estimated fire severity and underlying ecosystem processes influencing resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasion by annual grasses. For both applications, we compared CPT rankings to land cover changes along with sagebrush resistance and resilience metrics. Model results demonstrated how the CPT can be an important step in identifying management projects that yield the highest quantifiable benefit to Sage-grouse while avoiding costly misallocation of resources, and highlight the importance of considering changes in sage-grouse ecological response and factors influencing sagebrush ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasion. This unique framework can be adopted to help inform other management questions aimed at improving habitat for other species across sagebrush and other ecosystems.

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Restoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat—Part 3. Site level restoration decisions

Cited by 18 publications

References 4 publications

Resilience and resistance in sagebrush ecosystems are associated with seasonal soil temperature and water availability

Resilience and resistance in sagebrush ecosystems are associated with seasonal soil temperature and water availability

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

A conservation planning tool for Greater Sage‐grouse using indices of species distribution, resilience, and resistance

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