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Prado-Tarango DE, Mata-González R, Hovland M. Response of Sagebrush Steppe Grass Species to AMF Inoculum Sources and Biochar. Microorganisms 2023; 11:1113. [PMID: 37317087 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11051113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Revised: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 04/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The sagebrush steppe has presented increasing levels of degradation. The addition of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and biochar have been suggested to restore ecosystems. However, little is known about their effects on sagebrush steppe plants. We tested three sources of AMF inoculum: soil from a disturbed site (Inoculum A), soil from an undisturbed site (Inoculum B), and commercial inoculum (Inoculum C), all with and without biochar, to test if they could mediate growth of Pseudoroegneria spicata (native perennial), Taeniatherum caput-medusae (early seral; exotic annual) and Ventenata dubia (early seral; exotic annual) under greenhouse conditions. We measured AMF colonization and biomass. We hypothesized that the plant species would be differently affected by the inoculum types. The colonization of T. caput-medusae and V. dubia was greatest when inoculated with Inoculum A (38.8% and 19.6%). In contrast, the colonization of P. spicata was greatest with Inoculum B and Inoculum C (32.1% and 32.2). Biochar decreased biomass production but increased colonization with Inoculum A for P. spicata and V. dubia and with Inoculum C for T. caput-medusae. This study reveals the response of early and late seral sagebrush steppe grass species to contrasting sources of AMF and suggests that late seral plant species respond better to late seral inocula.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ricardo Mata-González
- Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Matthew Hovland
- Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
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Anthony CR, Germino MJ. Does post-fire recovery of native grasses across abiotic-stress and invasive-grass gradients match theoretical predictions, in sagebrush steppe? Glob Ecol Conserv 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2023.e02410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2023] Open
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Bell K, Driscoll DA, Patykowski J, Doherty TS. Abundance, Condition and Size of a Foundation Species Vary with Altered Soil Conditions, Remnant Type and Potential Competitors. Ecosystems 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-020-00598-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
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Shriver RK, Campbell E, Dailey C, Gaya H, Hill A, Kuzminski S, Miller‐Bartley M, Moen K, Moettus R, Oschrin E, Reese D, Simonson M, Willson A, Parker TH. Local landscape position impacts demographic rates in a widespread North American steppe bunchgrass. Ecosphere 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Robert K. Shriver
- Ecology Center Utah State University Logan Utah84322USA
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences University of Nevada Reno Nevada89557USA
| | - Erin Campbell
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
| | - Christopher Dailey
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
- School of Marine and Environmental Affairs University of Washington Seattle Washington98105USA
| | - Heather Gaya
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
- Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia 180 E Green Street Athens Georgia30602USA
| | - Abby Hill
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
| | - Sonya Kuzminski
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
| | | | - Kyle Moen
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
| | - Riga Moettus
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
| | - Emma Oschrin
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
- Department of Biology Indiana University 1001 East Third Street Bloomington Indiana47405USA
| | - Devin Reese
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
| | - Molly Simonson
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
- University of Washington School of Public Health 1959 NE Pacific Street Seattle Washington98195USA
| | - Alice Willson
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
| | - Timothy H. Parker
- Department of Biology Whitman College Walla Walla Washington99362USA
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Rodhouse TJ, Irvine KM, Bowersock L. Post-Fire Vegetation Response in a Repeatedly Burned Low-Elevation Sagebrush Steppe Protected Area Provides Insights About Resilience and Invasion Resistance. Front Ecol Evol 2020. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2020.584726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Sagebrush steppe ecosystems are threatened by human land-use legacies, biological invasions, and altered fire and climate dynamics. Steppe protected areas are therefore of heightened conservation importance but are few and vulnerable to the same impacts broadly affecting sagebrush steppe. To address this problem, sagebrush steppe conservation science is increasingly emphasizing a focus on resilience to fire and resistance to non-native annual grass invasion as a decision framework. It is well-established that the positive feedback loop between fire and annual grass invasion is the driving process of most contemporary steppe degradation. We use a newly developed ordinal zero-augmented beta regression model fit to large-sample vegetation monitoring data from John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, USA, spanning 7 years to evaluate fire responses of two native perennial foundation bunchgrasses and two non-native invasive annual grasses in a repeatedly burned, historically grazed, and inherently low-resilient protected area. We structured our model hierarchically to support inferences about variation among ecological site types and over time after also accounting for growing-season water deficit, fine-scale topographic variation, and burn severity. We use a state-and-transition conceptual diagram and abundances of plants listed in ecological site reference conditions to formalize our hypothesis of fire-accelerated transition to ecologically novel annual grassland. Notably, big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and other woody species were entirely removed by fire. The two perennial grasses, bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) and Thurber's needlegrass (Achnatherum thurberianum) exhibited fire resiliency, with no apparent trend after fire. The two annual grasses, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), increased in response to burn severity, most notably medusahead. Surprisingly, we found no variation in grass cover among ecological sites, suggesting fire-driven homogenization as shrubs were removed and annual grasses became dominant. We found contrasting responses among all four grass species along gradients of topography and water deficit, informative to protected-area conservation strategies. The fine-grained influence of topography was particularly important to variation in cover among species and provides a foothold for conservation in low-resilient, aridic steppe. Broadly, our study demonstrates how to operationalize resilience and resistance concepts for protected areas by integrating empirical data with conceptual and statistical models.
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Nicolli M, Rodhouse TJ, Stucki DS, Shinderman M. Rapid Invasion by The Annual Grass Ventenata dubia into Protected-Area, Low-Elevation Sagebrush Steppe. WEST N AM NATURALIST 2020. [DOI: 10.3398/064.080.0212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Melissa Nicolli
- National Park Service, Human and Ecosystem Resilience and Sustainability Lab, Bend, OR 97702
| | - Thomas J. Rodhouse
- National Park Service, Human and Ecosystem Resilience and Sustainability Lab, Bend, OR 97702
| | - Devin S. Stucki
- National Park Service, Human and Ecosystem Resilience and Sustainability Lab, Bend, OR 97702
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Lamy T, Koenigs C, Holbrook SJ, Miller RJ, Stier AC, Reed DC. Foundation species promote community stability by increasing diversity in a giant kelp forest. Ecology 2020; 101:e02987. [PMID: 31960414 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2019] [Revised: 11/27/2019] [Accepted: 12/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Foundation species structure communities, promote biodiversity, and stabilize ecosystem processes by creating locally stable environmental conditions. Despite their critical importance, the role of foundation species in stabilizing natural communities has seldom been quantified. In theory, the stability of a foundation species should promote community stability by enhancing species richness, altering the population fluctuations of individual species, or both. Here we tested the hypothesis that the stability of a marine foundation species, the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, increased the stability of the aggregate biomass of a phylogenetically diverse assemblage of understory algae and sessile invertebrates that compete for space beneath the giant kelp canopy. To achieve this goal, we analyzed an 18-yr time series of the biomass of giant kelp and its associated benthic community collected from 32 plots distributed among nine shallow reefs in the Santa Barbara Channel, USA. We showed that the stability of understory algae and sessile invertebrates was positively and indirectly related to the stability of giant kelp, which primarily resulted from giant kelp's direct positive association with species richness. The stability of all community types was positively related to species richness via increased species stability and species asynchrony. The stabilizing effects of richness were three to four times stronger when algae and invertebrates were considered separately rather than in combination. Our finding that diversity-stability relationships were stronger in communities consisting of species with similar resource requirements suggests that competition for shared resources rather than differential responses to environmental conditions played a more important role in stabilizing the community. Increasing threats to structure-forming foundation species worldwide necessitates a detailed understanding of how they influence their associated community. This study is among the first to show that dampened temporal fluctuations in the biomass of a foundation species is an important determinant of the stability of the complex communities it supports.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Lamy
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
| | - Craig Koenigs
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
| | - Sally J Holbrook
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
| | - Robert J Miller
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
| | - Adrian C Stier
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
| | - Daniel C Reed
- Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
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Irvine KM, Wright WJ, Shanahan EK, Rodhouse TJ. Cohesive framework for modelling plant cover class data. Methods Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.13262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn M. Irvine
- U.S. Geological Survey Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center Bozeman MT USA
| | | | - Erin K. Shanahan
- Greater Yellowstone Network U.S. National Park Service Bozeman MT USA
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Henderson EB, Bell DM, Gregory MJ. Vegetation mapping to support greater sage‐grouse habitat monitoring and management: multi‐ or univariate approach? Ecosphere 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Emilie B. Henderson
- Institute for Natural Resources Oregon State University Portland Oregon 97207 USA
| | - David M. Bell
- USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station Corvallis Oregon 97331 USA
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A Spatial Forestry Productivity Potential Model for Pinus arizonica Engelm, a Key Timber Species from Northwest Mexico. SUSTAINABILITY 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/su11030829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Pinus arizonica is a widely distributed tree species growing in temperate forests of Northwest Mexico where it is utilized through different regeneration harvest methods. Yet, management models based on estimations of its productive potential are sorely lacking. In this study, a procedure to create a productive map using site index (SI) equations and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was developed. A SI model for P. arizonica was created for the study area and used to classify a group of randomly sampled plots on three productivity categories (High, Medium, and Low) for management purposes. Climatic, topographic and edaphic variables were determined on the sampled plots. Then, a statistically-based analysis was performed to identify the climatic, topographic and edaphic variables significantly influencing the productivity levels. Based on the values of these significant variables, a map of productive potential was elaborated for the whole study area. Sites with the highest productivity were those with slopes ≤12°, soil depths ≥0.46 m, minimum and maximum mean annual temperatures of 5 °C and 18 °C respectively, and precipitation ≥900 mm. This methodology could be considered for similar species/conditions where productivity models do not exist or to update old models rendered obsolete by climate change.
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Extending Ordinal Regression with a Latent Zero-Augmented Beta Distribution. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL, BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s13253-016-0265-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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12
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Annual grass invasion in sagebrush steppe: the relative importance of climate, soil properties and biotic interactions. Oecologia 2016; 181:543-57. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-016-3583-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2015] [Accepted: 02/06/2016] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
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Holthuijzen MF, Veblen KE. Grass-Shrub Associations over a Precipitation Gradient and Their Implications for Restoration in the Great Basin, USA. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0143170. [PMID: 26625156 PMCID: PMC4666403 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2015] [Accepted: 11/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
As environmental stress increases positive (facilitative) plant interactions often predominate. Plant-plant associations (or lack thereof) can indicate whether certain plant species favor particular types of microsites (e.g., shrub canopies or plant-free interspaces) and can provide valuable insights into whether "nurse plants" will contribute to seeding or planting success during ecological restoration. It can be difficult, however, to anticipate how relationships between nurse plants and plants used for restoration may change over large-ranging, regional stress gradients. We investigated associations between the shrub, Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis), and three common native grasses (Poa secunda, Elymus elymoides, and Pseudoroegneria spicata), representing short-, medium-, and deep-rooted growth forms, respectively, across an annual rainfall gradient (220-350 mm) in the Great Basin, USA. We hypothesized that positive shrub-grass relationships would become more frequent at lower rainfall levels, as indicated by greater cover of grasses in shrub canopies than vegetation-free interspaces. We sampled aerial cover, density, height, basal width, grazing status, and reproductive status of perennial grasses in canopies and interspaces of 25-33 sagebrush individuals at 32 sites along a rainfall gradient. We found that aerial cover of the shallow rooted grass, P. secunda, was higher in sagebrush canopy than interspace microsites at lower levels of rainfall. Cover and density of the medium-rooted grass, E. elymoides were higher in sagebrush canopies than interspaces at all but the highest rainfall levels. Neither annual rainfall nor sagebrush canopy microsite significantly affected P. spicata cover. E. elymoides and P. spicata plants were taller, narrower, and less likely to be grazed in shrub canopy microsites than interspaces. Our results suggest that exploring sagebrush canopy microsites for restoration of native perennial grasses might improve plant establishment, growth, or survival (or some combination thereof), particularly in drier areas. We suggest that land managers consider the nurse plant approach as a way to increase perennial grass abundance in the Great Basin. Controlled experimentation will provide further insights into the life stage-specific effectiveness and practicality of a nurse plant approach for ecological restoration in this region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maike F. Holthuijzen
- Dept. of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States of America
| | - Kari E. Veblen
- Dept. of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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