Academic Journal
Long-Term Effectiveness of Tree Removal to Re-Establish Sagebrush Steppe Vegetation and Associated Spatial Patterns in Surface Conditions and Soil Hydrologic Properties
| العنوان: | Long-Term Effectiveness of Tree Removal to Re-Establish Sagebrush Steppe Vegetation and Associated Spatial Patterns in Surface Conditions and Soil Hydrologic Properties |
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| المؤلفون: | Williams, C. Jason, Johnson, Justin C., Pierson, Frederick B., Burleson, Cameron S., Polyakov, Viktor O., Kormos, Patrick R., Nouwakpo, S. Kossi |
| المساهمون: | MDPI AG |
| المصدر: | Articles |
| بيانات النشر: | Hosted by Utah State University Libraries |
| سنة النشر: | 2020 |
| المجموعة: | Utah State University: DigitalCommons@USU |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | connectivity, fire, Great Basin, hydraulic conductivity, hydrologic recovery, infiltration, islands of fertility, juniper, minidisk infiltrometer, pattern-process, pinyon, prescribed fire, rangeland, restoration, runoff, sagebrush steppe, SageSTEP, soil water repellency, structure and function, woodland encroachment, woody plant encroachment, Life Sciences |
| الوصف: | Pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodland encroachment into sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) steppe communities throughout western North America has substantially altered the vegetation structure and hydrologic function of one of the most ecologically important rangeland ecosystems in the world. Various pinyon and juniper tree removal practices are employed to re-establish sagebrush steppe vegetation and an associated resource-conserving ecohydrologic function. The effectiveness of these practices is highly variable owing to the vast domain in which woodland encroachment occurs, climate fluctuations, differences in treatment applications, and myriads of pre-treatment conditions and post-treatment land uses. This study evaluated the long-term (13 years post-treatment) effectiveness of prescribed fire and mechanical tree removal to re-establish sagebrush steppe vegetation and associated spatial patterns in ground surface conditions and soil hydrologic properties of two woodland-encroached sites. Specifically, we assessed the effects of tree removal on: (1) vegetation and ground cover at the hillslope scale (990 m2 plots) and (2) associated spatial patterns in point-scale ground surface conditions and soil hydrologic properties along transects extending from tree bases and into the intercanopy areas between trees. Both sites were in mid to late stages of woodland encroachment with extensive bare conditions (~60–80% bare ground) throughout a degraded intercanopy area (~75% of the domain) surrounding tree islands (~25% of domain, subcanopy areas). All treatments effectively removed mature tree cover and increased hillslope vegetation. Enhanced herbaceous cover (4–15-fold increases) in burned areas reduced bare interspace (bare area between plants) by at least 4-fold and improved intercanopy hydraulic conductivity (> than 2-fold) and overall ecohydrologic function. Mechanical treatments retained or increased sagebrush and generally increased the intercanopy herbaceous vegetation. Intercanopy ground ... |
| نوع الوثيقة: | text |
| وصف الملف: | application/pdf |
| اللغة: | unknown |
| Relation: | https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/sagestep_articles/52; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/context/sagestep_articles/article/1052/viewcontent/SAGEcenterart2020WilliamsJohnsonPierson_Long_TermEffectivenessTree.pdf |
| DOI: | 10.3390/w12082213 |
| الاتاحة: | https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/sagestep_articles/52 https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082213 https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/context/sagestep_articles/article/1052/viewcontent/SAGEcenterart2020WilliamsJohnsonPierson_Long_TermEffectivenessTree.pdf |
| Rights: | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact the Institutional Repository Librarian at digitalcommons@usu.edu. ; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| رقم الانضمام: | edsbas.2B84DC23 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | BASE |
| DOI: | 10.3390/w12082213 |
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