Utility of Soil Classification Units in Characterizing Native Grassland Plant Communities in the Southern Plains

Heerwagen, Arnold; Aandahl, Andrew R.

doi:10.2307/3895151

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…As Heerwagen and Aandahl (1961) indicate, probably the most meaningful soil-plant relationships occur at the series and type levels. Except for Gem County, formal soil surveys were not available, and even in that county the data were not sufficiently detailed to designate series for all study sites.…”

Section: Relations To Soil Taxonomic Unitsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Environmental Factors Related to Medusahead Distribution

Dahl¹,

Tisdale²

1975

Journal of Range Management

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Sites particularly susceptible to medusahead invasion in the more arid portions of Idaho were either those with well-developed soil profiles, particularly those with high clay content either at or near the surface; or those occupying topographic positions that received additional runoff from adjacent sites. In more mesic climates moderately well developed soils appeared as highly susceptible as the well-developed soils. Conversely, soils with little profile development, particularly those which were well drained, remained dominated by cheatgrass in early seral stages regardless of whether they were in the more arid or mesic areas. The nature of the surface geology as it influenced the soil texture derived therefrom was a valuable aid to identifying sites susceptible to medusahead. Maintaining a good stand of perennial vegetation appeared the best barrier to medusahead invasion in to susceptible soils.

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Section: Relations To Soil Taxonomic Unitsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Environmental Factors Related to Medusahead Distribution

Dahl¹,

Tisdale²

1975

Journal of Range Management

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“…Although no soil/plant production research comparable to that dealing with range sites has taken place at the regional level, one should expect the same concept to hold, but at a lower resolution associated wdth higher categories of soil classification (Heerwagen and Aandahl 1961). The soil family, for example, groups soil series having similar chemical and physical properties that affect their response to management (Soil Survey Staff 1975).…”

Section: Soil Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of forage production for assessments and appraisals

Mitchell¹

1983

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An understanding of the ecological factors affecting forage production is necessary if natural resource scientists are to develop models and other analytical tools that will more accurately and precisely estimate the forage response to management practices on specific ecosystems. Although the present knowledge on this subject is fairly comprehensive in several general areas, it is incomplete in others. Environmental factors related to processes that can be measured aboveground have been described to a much greater degree than those interacting with plants belowground. For example, scientists have described the ecological consequences of light intensity and CO2 concentration on photosynthesis more exactly than they have described belowground nutrient cycling pathways. Fortunately, increasing research in edaphology, nutrient cycling, and some aspects of ecophysiology is adding to knowledge of belowground ecological processes. Most techniques for estimating forage production on the ground have been known for some time; however, procedures for predicting forage production on the basis of climate, management, and other causal factors are more recently and less finely developed. Researchers have been able, however, to construct reasonably accurate models of the rate some species and species groups accumulate biomass. To date, such models have tended to be applicable only to specific plant communities, which narrows their usefulness in predicting responses to management at the regional or forest level. Models are being improved so that, within the coming decade, the use of ecological production models is likely to play an important part in resource management procedures. The most apparent obstacle in this modeling is a lack of an accepted general systems theory paradigm applicable to natural ecosystems. A general systems approach is based on the idea that system properties are not a function of characteristics of each ecosystem, but can be applied universally to many ecosystems (Halfon 1979). This report presents an overview of forage production as an ecological process. It describes production mechanisms for ecological modeling in a way that can be readily synthesized. In addition, it provides the reader who is familiar with basic concepts of ecology with a contemporary picture of what forage production is and, using current analysis tools, how it may be evaluated within the framework of natural resource assessments.

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